Political parties reach a consensus to campaign against

 
The representatives of the major political parties in the country met on June 17, 2008 on the invitation of the five media organizations affiliated to the Media Centre – Sri Lanka to discuss on the dreadful situation facing the Sri Lankan media.
The representatives of the media organizations briefed on the threat faced by them for [...]

IFJ Supports Media Dialogue in Sri Lanka

 
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) fully supports the efforts of the five media organisations in Sri Lanka to encourage dialogue with the country’s political parties in order to resolve the dangers and difficulties confronting journalists and media institutions in the country.
The five organisations representing journalists in Sri Lanka – the Free Media Movement (FMM), [...]

Alleged torture of press owner: SC seeks report

   
By S.S. Selvanayagam
Daily Mirror,28th June 2008
The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the Terrorist Investigation Division to produce press owner Vetrivel Jasiharan before the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer within one week.
The Bench comprising Justices Raja Fernando, Saleem Marsoof and K. Sripavan also directed the registrar of the court to call for a report from the JMO with [...]

State media level dangerous allegation against Sri Lanka Press Institute

 
Free Media Movement expresses its serious concern that State controlled media has levelled dangerous allegations against Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) without verifying the story from SLPI.
State controlled Sinhala language newspaper ‘Dinamina’ considered as one of the mouth pieces of the government said in a lead story  that “the police intelligence has received information saying [...]

SLPI refutes allegations made by

IFJ Calls for Fair Judicial Process for Tissainayagam in Sri Lanka

 
24th June 2008/The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls on authorities in Sri Lanka to ensure fair and transparent judicial process is applied to senior Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, who continues to be detained by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police.
A magistrate is due to issue a decision on June 30 [...]

Tissainayagam further detained

   
By: T. Farook Thajudeen.
Daily Mirror/24th June
Senior journalist J.S. Tissainayagam was further detained yesterday while his counsel insisted that the detention by the TID beyond 90 days was illegal.
Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi reserved the order for June 30 and ordered the TID to produce Mr. Tissainyagama and the other suspects Vetrivel Jesikheren and Malarmadi Vadivel [...]

Twenty-nine IFEX members alert UN secretary-general to statements by government and military

 
 
Ki-moon
Secretary-General
United Nations
Secretariat Building, Room S-3800
New York, NY 10017
Dear Sir,
Under terms of UNSCR 1738 on the protection of journalists in conflict, we write to draw your attention to the alarming situation in Sri Lanka, where statements associated with the government and the military have, in our view, put journalists in grave danger.
In commentaries published on its [...]

Former Journalist abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 June 2008, 09:15 GMT]
A former reporter of Colombo Tamil daily Thinakkural, Thiruchelvam Thirukumaran, currently an officer attached to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Environment, was abducted from his house at Dehiwala by a group of men who arrived in a white colour van around 8:45 p.m. Saturday, according to a complaint lodged [...]

As Sri Lanka’s civil war escalates, so do attacks on its journalists

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI,
 AP
Posted: 2008-06-19 03:47:30
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) – With civil war raging in Sri Lanka, the journalists trying to cover the conflict find themselves increasingly under siege.
They have been hounded by the government, attacked by unknown assailants and accused of aiding the rebels. Many reporters have been arrested or fled the country, while others [...]