Sri Lanka / Asia

  
Prageeth Eknelygoda's wife and sons are still seeking information on him. (CPJ)

BBC coverage of Prageeth Eknelygoda’s disappearance

A short follow-up to yesterday’s alert about Sandhya Eknelygoda–“Sri Lankan journalist missing for 500 days”–and her attempts to get assistance from anyone in the Sri Lankan government or at the United Nations to help her learn more about the disappearance of her husband, Prageeth. The BBC’s Colombo correspondent Charles Haviland produced a story about Eknelygoda…

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Sri Lanka: Ode to a detainee

On May 18, we posted about the stirring letter Sandhya Eknelygoda, wife of detained journalist Prageeth Eknelygoda sent to Sri Lanka’s First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa. Check out the link: In Sri Lanka, a mother’s plea to the first lady.

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Video: ‘Living in silence: Journalists in exile’

We write a lot at CPJ about the terrible things that happen to journalists because of their reporting, but we don’t often get a chance to show you what happens to them after they are forced to flee their homes and land abroad. This video, about three such journalists, is worth watching.

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Prageeth Eknelygoda's wife and sons are still seeking information on him. (CPJ)

In Sri Lanka, a mother’s plea to the first lady

As Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa launches a domestic media campaign against U.N. allegations of war crimes since the May 2009 ceasefire, the plight of Sandhya Eknelygoda continues.

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U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. (Reuters)

U.N. vows transparency on Sri Lanka abuses

The three-person panel of experts on Sri Lanka appointed in 2010 to look into possible war crimes during the decades-long conflict with Tamil secessionists submitted its findings to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday. That report should include the attacks on the news media that have become a reality for journalists working there.

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A cartoon by Prageeth Eknelygoda.

UN heard Eknelygoda’s cry for help; husband still missing

Sandhya Eknelygoda has recently managed to get the attention of the United Nations about the case of the disappearance of her husband, Prageeth, on January 24, 2010. Still, there has been no progress made in learning of his whereabouts. 

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One of Prageeth Eknelygoda's last cartoons.

U.N. to investigate Prageeth Eknelygoda’s disappearance

Tuesday’s letter from CPJ and four other groups to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon apparently had some impact. The Canadian Press reported today that Ban has asked the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO, which oversees press freedom, to look into the case of Prageeth Eknelygoda, a Sri Lankan columnist and cartoonist missing for…

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Why hasn’t the U.N. reached out to Sandhya Eknelygoda?

On February 18, we noted that the United Nations in New York finally said it received a letter from Sandhya Eknelygoda, the wife of missing journalist Prageeth Eknelygoda. Sandhya had given the letter to the U.N. representative in Colombo, Neil Buhne, on January 24, the first anniversary of her husband’s disappearance. It was also channeled…

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Request for help for Prageeth: Lost in the mail?

Finally, there has been some movement in the case of Prageeth Eknelygoda, at left, the Sri Lankan journalist who disappeared on January 24, 2010. The United Nations says it has received a letter from Eknelygoda’s wife, Sandhya, that she had handed over to the U.N. representative in Colombo, Neil Buhne, on January 24, the anniversary…

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CPJ
Umar Cheema

At Attacks launch: What if governments are perpetrators?

When we launched the new edition of Attacks on the Press at the United Nations today, I was hit with questions about Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Both dealt with what amounts to the same problem: What do you do when you’re asking a government to investigate a crime in which it might have been the…

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