Sri Lankan journalist abducted, beaten: rights group

Attempted abduction of leading journalist raises fears for safety of media personnel in Sri Lanka

The attempted abduction of a senior journalist in Sri Lanka, the Provincial Editor of the Sinhala newspaper Silumina and the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association’s Secretary Poddala Jayantha, made the headlines of the Daily Mirror today.

As noted in the story,

An unidentified gang is alleged to have attempted to abduct the Silumina newspaper’s provincial editor and Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association secretary Poddala Jayantha from his residence yesterday, he told the media.

The attempted abduction was shrouded in mystery when a jeep which the Matara Senior Superintendent A.B. Ayupala confirmed as one belonging to his division was present at the scene at the time of the incident.

The presence of a Police vehicle at the time of the attempted abduction raises, among other vital concerns, grave questions on the impartiality of investigations underway to look into the outrageous affront to media freedom involving Government MP Mervyn de Silva recently. Rather than disciplining the Minister, the Government, President, State machinary and underworld elements now all seem to now openly target journalists who stood up to the thuggish behaviour of the Minister and his brutish henchmen and reported his actions in the media.

Poddala Jayantha gave an account of what he had to face at a Press Conference in Colombo yesterday.

Video courtesy Vikalpa Video