RI LANKA’S LIVELY AND COMBATIVE MEDIA FACED NUMEROUS CHALLENGES from a hostile government, with the most intense battle waged over the president’s tightening of censorship restrictions. Press coverage of the country’s 17-year-old civil war remained thin, due to intermittent censorship and because the government refused to grant journalists regular access to the conflict areas in…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the murder yesterday of veteran journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, a Jaffna-based journalist who reported for various news organizations including the BBC’s Tamil and Sinhala-language services, the Tamil-language daily Virakesari, and the Sinhala-language weekly Ravaya.
New York, September 8, 2000–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote to Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga today, welcoming her decision to ease censorship restrictions on the media. However, CPJ noted that censorship of military-related news remains in place, in violation of Sri Lanka’s international obligations to uphold press freedom. “We do not think that…
New York, September 5, 2000 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the sentencing today of Lasantha Wickrematunga, editor of the English-language weekly newspaper The Sunday Leader, on charges of criminally defaming President Chandrika Kumaratunga. A judge from Colombo’s High Court sentenced Wickrematunga to two years in jail, but suspended the sentence for five…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed by recent indications that censorship regulations are still fully in force in Sri Lanka, despite earlier assurances by the media minister that these restrictions would be lifted by mid-August, well in advance of the upcoming parliamentary elections. CPJ believes that it is impossible to hold free and fair elections in a country where media are subject to censorship regulations.
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in SRI LANKA. New York, April 7, 2000 — CPJ condemns the April 6 assault on Elmo Fernando, correspondent for the BBC’s Sinhala-language service. Fernando was attacked in front of the Norwegian embassy in the capital city of Colombo by a group of demonstrators protesting Norway’s…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deplores your administration’s decision to reimpose censorship restrictions on the media. A July 1 amendment to the emergency regulations issued in early May gives Your Excellency the power to appoint a Competent Authority charged with enforcing the censorship provisions. This move undermines the spirit of last week’s ruling by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, in which a three-member bench unanimously held that the decisions of the chief censor were invalid and without legal force because he had been improperly appointed as the Competent Authority.
New York, June 30, 2000–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) applauds Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ruling today that the government’s system of news censorship is illegal, and that the decisions of the chief censor therefore have no force in law. A unanimous three-judge panel delivered the verdict in response to a petition brought by the…
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka June 15 — Harsh press censorship in Sri Lanka is increasingly counterproductive, senior government officials told a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) this week, and the government pledged to end the restrictions by mid-August when parliamentary elections are called. Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera told CPJ during a private meeting…