Sri Lanka

Over the summer, as a book I’d written about the lives of murdered journalists went to press, a crusading human rights reporter from the Russian republic of Chechnya was shot dead. I was not surprised by the details of her murder, just as the Chechen reporter was not surprised she’d become a target for execution: Like all the journalists in my book, Natalya Estemirova had known she would probably be murdered.

In response to a report by The Associated Press saying that the agency's Sri Lanka bureau chief Ravi Nessman left the country on Monday after the government refused to renew his visa, we released this statement...

There should be no doubt that the government is continuing its offensive against the media following its military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). On Wednesday, Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena confirmed what had been rumored for more than a week: The defunct Press Council, which was put to rest in 2002, will be revived. 

Following the recent arrest and continued detention of three Tamil doctors--Thangamuttu Sathiyamorthi, Thurairaja Varatharajan and V. Sunmugarajah --by the Sri Lankan military after they supplied local and international news media with causality figures in Vanni during the last stages of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, we issued this statement...

"Information is power, which is precisely why many governments attempt to control the press to suppress opposition and preempt dissent," said U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who three years ago founded the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press. "Far too often, the reporters and editors who demand reform, accountability, and transparency find themselves at risk," he went on. "The censorship, intimidation, imprisonment, and murder of these journalists are not only crimes against these individuals, but they also impact those who are denied access to their ideas and information."

Sri Lanka got special mention in the statements of world leaders marking World Press Freedom Day, May 3. It's not surprising. The government in Colombo has coupled an all-out effort to end its war with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with an assault on critics in the Sri Lankan media. U.S. President Barack Obama's statement mentioned the egregious case of J.S. Tissainayagam, on trial in Colombo and accused of terrorism because of his writing. 

We issued the following statement today in response to international news reports that a Sri Lankan court released journalist Nadesapillai Vithyatharan without charge after nearly two months in jail for allegedly supporting a terrorist attack on the capital, Colombo...

On Tuesday, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission convened a hearing on Sri Lanka. The impetus was the disintegrating human rights situation in the northeastern "no fire zone." CPJ was invited to testify about attacks on Sri Lankan journalists and the fact that both sides to the Tamil secessionist war--the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the government--do not allow journalists access to the conflict zone.

The dire situation for journalists in Sri Lanka who have fallen out of favor with the government has not gone unnoticed at the U.S. State Department. On March 23, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a letter to Senator Robert Casey, who chaired the Senate Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on Sri Lanka on February 24. Seven senators had written to her about their concerns in Sri Lanka after the meeting.

There's a familiar pattern emerging in Sri Lanka, one we've seen in many countries. When the government doesn't have a viable case against a critical journalist, prosecutors turn to state security laws to keep them in detention.