Overviewby Abi Wright Threats to press freedom spiked throughout Asia in 2004, even as the news media claimed significant accomplishments. Across the region, 2004 was an election year, with citizens casting ballots in nations such as Afghanistan, whose landmark vote was peaceful and orderly, and India, where more than 370 million went to the polls.…
Sri Lanka The fragile cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) deteriorated in 2004, heightening tensions and challenges for the nation and its media. Even after a devastating tsunami in late December killed more than 30,000 people, the divisions held fast and hampered initial relief efforts. Tamil…
Around the world, 122 journalists were in prison at the end of 2004 for practicing their profession, 16 fewer than the year before. International advocacy campaigns, including those waged by the Committee to Protect Journalists, helped win the early release of a number of imprisoned journalists, notably six independent writers and reporters in Cuba.
New York, August 17, 2004—Amid increased political violence, Bala Nadarajah Iyer, a journalist, writer, and political activist with the opposition Tamil group the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), was shot and killed yesterday, August 16, by unidentified assailants in the capital, Colombo. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating whether the murder was related…
New York, June 1, 2004—Aiyathurai Nadesan, a veteran Tamil journalist, was shot and killed on Monday, May 31, by unidentified assailants in Batticaloa, a town on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka and 135 miles (216 kilometers) from the capital, Colombo, according to international news reports and local journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)…
New York, May 4, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by yesterday’s police raid on the home of Dharmeratnam Sivaram, a veteran journalist and columnist, in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital. Sivaram edits Tamilnet (www.tamilnet.com), an online news service that covers Sri Lankan affairs with special emphasis on news of interest to the…
New York, March 25, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is very concerned for the safety of journalists working for the London-based Tamil Broadcasting Corporation (TBC). Journalists there have received numerous death threats in recent weeks, according to TBC staff and other CPJ sources. After the station began broadcasting in the United Kingdom and in…
The Sri Lankan government’s fragile cease-fire with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), reached in February 2002 after 20 years of fighting, held throughout 2003 and brought a measure of stability to the media. But political tensions reached a crisis point on November 4, when President Chandrika Kumaratunga suspended Parliament and deployed troops…