Mylvaganam Nimalarajan

Sri Lanka's mettlesome media endured another year of extraordinary political volatility. Although the administration of President Chandrika Kumaratunga finally lifted onerous censorship regulations and eased restrictions preventing journalists from reporting fully on the country's long-running civil war, journalists were still routinely threatened and harassed for their reporting. Impunity for crimes against journalists continued to be the norm, contributing to a culture in which political violence occurs frequently because it goes unpunished.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed that one year after the murder of Jaffna-based journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, investigative efforts appear to have been utterly abandoned.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the security of Dharmeratnam Sivaram, veteran journalist and editor of the TamilNet Web site. Over the past two weeks, state media have featured articles accusing Sivaram of being a spy for the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)--a charge that seriously endangers him and his family.

New York, May 25, 2001 --- The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent smoke bomb attack on the Sinhala-language weekly newspaper Ravaya, and urges the government to issue a prompt and full report on the status of the police investigation that is now underway.

"Attacks against journalists in Sri Lanka are occurring with alarming regularity," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "Without thorough and impartial investigations into such incidents, the message is that journalists can be targeted with impunity."

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the security of A.S.M. Fasmi, a reporter for the Tamil-language newspaper Thinakkural. Fasmi, who is based on the northern island of Mannar, says he has been detained, interrogated, and threatened repeatedly with death since he reported on the alleged rape of two Tamil women detained by local security forces last month.

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 northern Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, violent attacks against journalists continued, and were typically committed with impunity. One journalist was killed in 2000 and another narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

New York, January 4, 2001 --- Of the 24 journalists killed for their work in 2000, according to CPJ research, at least 16 were murdered, most of those in countries where assassins have learned they can kill journalists with impunity.

This figure is down from 1999, when CPJ found that 34 journalists were killed for their work, 10 of them in war-torn Sierra Leone.

In announcing the organization's annual accounting of journalists who lost their lives because of their work, CPJ executive director Ann Cooper noted that while most of the deaths occurred in countries experiencing war or civil strife, "The majority did not die in crossfire. They were very deliberately targeted for elimination because of their reporting." Others whose deaths were documented by CPJ appear to have been singled out while covering demonstrations, or were caught in military actions or ambushes while on assignment.

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.