… to
IFJ sources, Sirimalwatte’s unconditional release was ordered by a magistrate’s
court after the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the SriLankan police
failed to present charges against him.
Sirimalwatte
was taken into custody on January 29, two days after incumbent president Mahinda
Rajapaksa was…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) extends
its solidarity to SriLanka’s
five main organisations of journalists as they begin a campaign of protests to
draw attention to the new wave of media suppression since the country’s
presidential election on January 26.
The Free
Media Movement (FMM), the Federation
of Media…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) fully support
the call made by the five principal organisations of journalists in SriLanka
urging government authorities to end immediately the harassment of media
personnel, which reached alarming levels on and just before January 26, the day
of the country’s presidential election.
The SriLanka…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) notes
with concern that the campaign for SriLanka’s presidential election
due to take place tomorrow has been marked by a high degree of harassment of
media personnel and occasional acts of violence.
In the most
recent instance of harassment, a busload of media personnel going to the…
…
The International Federation Journalists (IFJ) welcomes the
decision by the SriLankan appeals courts to grant bail to senior journalist
J.S. Tissainayagam, over four months
after he was convicted and sentenced to 20 years’ jail on terrorism charges.
Tissainayagam was granted conditional
bail yesterday pending his appeal against his conviction.…
… guilty.”
On January 7, a day before the one
year anniversary of Wickramatunge’s murder, the Criminal Investigation Division
(CID) of the SriLankan police reported that the cause of Lasantha’s death was
a head injury inflicted by a sharp weapon and not a gunshot wound as previously
believed.
The IFJ…
…
The
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today released the report of a
press freedom mission to SriLanka, identifying key challenges for the
country's journalists and media at the end of 25 years of internal conflict and
the inauguration of a new phase of political contests. Media
stakeholders who met with the mission during its visit to SriLanka…
… - The Philippines: Continued impunity for murder in 2005Aung San Suu Kyi, politician - Burma: Under house arrest, silencedDileesha Abeysundara, journalist/activist - SriLanka: ThreatenedMu Sochua, politician - Cambodia: Insulted, Defamation lawsuitVarunee Suesatsakulchai, journalist - Thailand: Assaulted, Threatened Joint Action Group for…
…
The International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) is deeply concerned to learn that journalists from SriLanka and Bangladesh,
assigned to participate in a workshop on environmental journalism in the Indian
port city of Tuticorin,
were denied visas by the Indian Government.
According to information from IFJ
partner organisations, four journalists from…
…
The
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes a decision by a court in
SriLanka to order the release of magazine publisher Vetrivel Jasiharan and his
partner Vadivel Vallarmathy, after 19 months’ detention on charges of
terrorism.
Yesterday’s summary
judicial order discharging Jasiharan and Vallarmarthy was issued after…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins
press freedom defenders in SriLanka
in calling on President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Government of SriLanka to
put an immediate end to the climate of impunity that has allowed a long campaign
of intimidation and violence against independent journalism in SriLanka.
The IFJ stands
in…
…
The
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today said that the report of the
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) on the trial of SriLankan journalist
J. S. Tissainayagam vindicates the criticism of the 20 year jail term imposed
on him by the High Court of Colombo on 31 August.Tissainayagam was found guilty of "causing
communal disharmony" and…
… South Asian region, meeting on the
platform of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN), express our deepest
concern over continuing violations of media rights in SriLanka, and call on the government of the
country to uphold the international human rights covenants it is party
to.
We are shocked by the August 31
verdict of the…
…
The International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned a
20-year jail term against senior SriLankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam as
"brutal and inhumane" and accused SriLankan authorities of abusing anti-terror
laws to silence peaceful critics. The High Court of Colombo today convicted
Tissainayagam, a prominent Tamil journalist, of "causing…
…
The International Federation
of Journalists (IFJ) endorses a call by a newly formed network of SriLankan
journalists in exile urging SriLanka’s
Government to take immediate action to end the safety and censorship crisis confronting
journalists and media workers in SriLanka.
A statement issued on July 22 by Journalists for Democracy in…
…
The following is a joint open letter of the International Federation of Journalists and other press freedom organisations addressed to President Mahinda Rajapaska of SriLanka over the situation of journalists in the country.
The
International Press Freedom Mission to SriLanka, which is comprised of
representatives from the world's media…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) strongly
condemns the reported ban on the popular news website www.lankanewsweb.com imposed by SriLanka’s
Government on July 12.
According to a statement posted on the website, which continues to remain available outside the
country, SriLanka’s state-controlled
telecoms company and two…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is shocked
at a recent article posted on the website of SriLanka’s Ministry of Defence, branding as “traitors” five lawyers appearing in a
case of contempt involving the Sunday Leader newspaper.
The article, titled
“Traitors in Black Coats Flocked Together”,
names…
…
The International Federation of
Journalists is shocked that the systematic campaign of threats and harassment
carried out against Uthayan,
a Tamil newspaper in the northern SriLankan city of Jaffna,
has culminated in a “final warning” to shut down or risk lethal retaliation.
According to reports received from
IFJ sources in SriLanka, a…
…
The International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) strongly condemns an attack on three Tamil newspapers in the
northern SriLankan city of Jaffna
on June 24.
According to reports from IFJ
sources, news agents for Jaffna’s three main
newspapers – Uthayan, Valampuri and Thinakkural – were attacked early that morning as they…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its
affiliate organisations in SriLanka – the Free Media Movement, the SriLanka
Working Journalists’ Association and the Federation of Media Employees’ Trade
Unions – in strongly condemning the SriLankan Government’s decision to revive
the Press Council that was…
…
The International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) appeals to the international community to take urgent action
to demand that SriLanka’s Government end immediately its campaign of accusing
journalists of treason and association with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam
(LTTE), after a prominent media rights defender was abducted and brutally…
…
The International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) joins the widow of SriLankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge
in calling on SriLanka’s
power-holders to take immediate action to conduct a full, fair and independent investigation
into the murder of the senior newsman.
Sonali
Samarasinghe Wickrematunge, also a journalist, has publicly released…
… meeting noted that the hazards facing free and independent media in
the region have been epitomised in the murders this year of Lasantha
Wickrematunge in SriLanka, Uma Singh in Nepal and Musa Khankhel in Pakistan.
In India,
“there have been four murders, three arrests of editors or publishers, and one
case of a news…
… May 1, ahead of World Press Freedom Day on May 3,
to the “distressing reality” of journalists jailed or harassed for the content
of their work, including senior SriLankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam.
Tissainayagam is currently on trial in
Colombo accused
of terrorism for the content of his writing.
For the…
… Afghanistan, Colombia( 2 families) Democratic Republic
of Congo ( 5 families), Iraq (7 families), the Philippines
( 2 families), Pakistan, Russia,
Somalia ( 3 families), SriLanka and Zimbabwe. "World
Press Freedom Day is about the working and living conditions of journalists,"
added White. "Those who pay the ultimate sacrifice for their profession…
…nternational Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes the release of
Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, editor of the Tamil daily newspaper Sudar Oli,
after almost two months in detention in SriLanka.
Although no charges
were laid against Vithyatharan, officials of the Crime Branch of the SriLankan
police had requested a magistrate’s court on March 18…
…
The
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes the release of Dammika
Ganganath Dissanayake, media adviser to SriLanka’s principal opposition
party and a former chairman of the state-owned broadcast agency, who returned
home yesterday after being abducted by armed men on the night of March 11.
“The IFJ welcomes
the release and…
…
The International Federation of Journalists
(IFJ) today asked the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate cases
of serious violations of journalists’ rights in SriLanka under the cloak of
countering terrorism.
In a statement to the tenth session
of the UN human rights body in Geneva, the IFJ singled out SriLanka as one of
the…
…he International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) is alarmed and dismayed over reports that Dammika Ganganath
Dissanayake, the former chairman of the government-owned broadcaster, the SriLanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC), may have been abducted from his home near Colombo.
According to reports received from
sources in Colombo, Dissanayake was taken away…
… One year
after Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam was detained without charge in SriLanka,
international media rights organisations remain deeply worried about his
continuing detention on charges of terrorism. Marking
the anniversary of his detention on March…
…
The International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) demands that SriLankan authorities end the mistreatment and
possible torture of N. Vidyatharan, a Tamil newspaper editor detained on
February 26 and held since then on a vague and undefined pretext.
Vidyatharan, the editor of the Tamil
language newspaper Sudaroli published from Colombo
and Uthayan…
… whom in police
uniform, forcibly bundled him in a van and drove off in the manner of a kidnap
operation. "We condemn this display of
thuggish tactics against journalists in SriLanka;" said Aidan White, IFJ
General Secretary. "The harassment of media has now reached unprecedented
levels and the world needs to speak out against the government's…
… Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is alarmed to learn of the death
of journalist Puniyamoorthy Sathiyamoorthy from injuries reportedly sustained
in an artillery attack by the SriLankan Army on February 12.
Sathiyamoorthy,
a Tamil journalist of long-standing, contributed news reports and analyses, as
well as short stories and poems, to various…
… Union of Journalists (India) (NUJI)
National Union of Journalists, Nepal (NUJN)
National Union of Journalists of the
Philippines
(NUJP)
SriLanka Working Journalists Association
(SLWJA)
UNI APRO
UNI Global Union
United Confederation of Mongolian
Journalists (CMJ)
…
The International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is disturbed to learn that the SriLanka
Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) has been blocking and in other ways interfering
with BBC World Service programs that SLBC has contracted to carry over its FM
channels.
The SLBC and the BBC have had a
contractual relationship whereby the latter provides…
…
The International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) strongly decries a warning issued by SriLanka’s Defence
Secretary that foreign media organisations would face “dire
consequences” and be “chased out” of the country if they did not behave
“responsibly”.
Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa
accused three…
…
The International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) strongly denounces an appeal by SriLanka’s Defence spokesman urging journalists in SriLanka to
inform authorities about what he described as suspicious activities by fellow journalists.
Defence spokesman Keheliya
Rambukwella was reported in local media on January 23 to have called on…
…
The
International Press Freedom Mission
today condemned a "culture of impunity and indifference" over
killings and attacks on journalists in SriLanka. Since the beginning of 2009, the killing of a senior editor and the attack on
the facilities of a popular independent TV channel have led to a total
paralysis of the media…
…
The following editorial by Lasantha
Wickrematunge, who was murdered in SriLanka
on January 8, 2009, was published in The
Sunday Leader on January 11.
The International Federation of Journalists
(IFJ) joins journalists and human rights defenders in SriLanka in
grieving the loss of a courageous journalist and defender of human rights. He
has…
… South Asia's leading journalists and
press freedom campaigners, who was shot dead yesterday in a targeted
assassination.
Lasantha, editor in chief of
the Sunday Leader in SriLanka, was shot after has car was ambushed
by two assassins on motorcycles. They blocked his car, used crowbars to smash
the windows and shot him at a busy intersection in…
… of Journalists (IFJ) has today strongly
condemned the attack on the studios and facilities of the Maharaja group of
media enterprises in the Pannipitiya suburb of the SriLankan capital of Colombo, during the early
hours of January 6. According to reports received from IFJ affiliates in SriLanka, more than a dozen armed
intruders entered the…
…
Threats against a prominent political
cartoonist in SriLanka over
a cartoon published on December 7 in the weekly Lanka yet again highlight the insidious nature of efforts to impose censorship in SriLanka,
according to the International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
Winnie
Hettigoda, who is also a writer and television producer, received…
…
The
International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) is extremely concerned about restrictions on reporting of defence
matters in SriLanka
after a court prohibited all Leader Publications newspapers publishing any
information referring to the Defence Secretary until December 18.
According
to the Free Media Movement (FMM), an
IFJ…
… into allegations that
police verbally and physically abused a journalist as he attempted to report on
public disruption caused by an unannounced curfew in Batticaloa in SriLanka’s
east.
According to the Free Media Movement (FMM), an IFJ affiliate,
Kalmunai media house journalist Mohamed Hussein was beaten by officers from the
Eravur…
…
The International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is concerned at reports that broadcasts of the
BBC Sinhala and Tamil programs in SriLanka were censored by the
government-controlled host network.
According to the five leading
journalists’ organisations in SriLanka, known as the Five Media Collective,
several sections of a broadcast…
…
The International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) holds grave fears for the safety of detained
Tamil media worker N. Jesiharan and his family in SriLanka after the family received
threats and demands for ransom in return for Jesiharan’s safety while in
detention.
The IFJ appeals to SriLanka’s
Minister for Human Rights and…
…
The International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is relieved to report the release from
detention of A.R. Vanna Loshan by SriLanka’s Terrorism Investigation
Division (TID) on November 22.
According to the Free Media
Movement (FMM), an IFJ affiliate, the
TID handed Loshan over to his parents after eight days in detention…
… who is defending himself against
terrorism charges in the Colombo High Court this week.
In what will become a landmark case in the history of press freedom in
SriLanka and beyond, Tissainayagam will this week give evidence on two
charges of writing to bring discredit to the government and inciting ethnic and
racial disharmony and printing…
…
To read the full mission statement, click here.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), as part of the third visit of the International Press Freedom Mission to SriLanka between October 25 and 29, has joined a statement expressing concern at the deterioration in the situation since the last visit in June 2007.Among the most serious developments…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned the killing of SriLankan television journalist Rashmi Mohamed who died in a bombing of the opening ceremony of the new office of SriLanka's United National Party (UNP) in Anuradhapura.
"Once again indiscriminate terrorist violence has claimed a journalists' life and that of innocent…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its
local affiliates in SriLanka today launched an online campaign video
condemning the arrest and indictment of senior Tamil journalist J.S.
Tissainayagam, who passed his sixth month in jail on September
7.
All
individuals and organisations are invited to join the campaign to Stop…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is alarmed that SriLankan authorities are taking the unprecedented step of applying the country’s draconian
anti-terrorism law to seek to condemn senior journalist J.S. Tissainayagam for pursuing his profession.
After being held for five months without charge, Tissainayagam has been…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) fears that conditions for journalists in SriLanka’s Eastern Province are worsening, after another journalist reported being threatened by a member of the Tamil Peoples’ Liberation Tigers (TMVP, or the Karuna faction).The Free Media Movement (FMM), an IFJ affiliate, said it had received reports that…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is alarmed at new reports
that SriLankan Army Commander Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka continues to
menace independent media by interfering with defence reporting in two major
newspapers.
According to the five leading journalists’ organizations in SriLanka,
including IFJ affiliates the…
…
As journalists in SriLanka continue to suffer intimidation and harassment, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls on SriLanka’s Government to make good on its recent commitment to investigate thoroughly all acts of violence directed toward members of SriLanka’s media community.In late June, the five main journalists’…
…
The International Federation of Journalists
(IFJ) is deeply concerned by reports that officials of the SriLankan Police's
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) visited the office of the web-based
news portal www.lankaenews.com on June
17 and questioned editor Sandaruwan Senadeera
and news editor Benet Rupasinghe for more than three hours. The CID…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls on authorities in
SriLanka
to ensure fair and transparent judicial process is applied to senior Tamil journalist
J.S. Tissainayagam, who continues to be detained by the Terrorist Investigation
Division (TID) of the SriLanka Police.
A magistrate is due to issue a decision on June 30 in the case…
…
The SriLankan Government’s reported efforts to deny media personnel
access to report on council elections in the island’s Eastern Province undermines
democratic election processes, said the International Federation of Journalists
(IFJ).
According to the Free Media Movement (FMM), an IFJ
affiliate, two Associated Press (AP)…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) demands
authorities in SriLanka
take immediate action to resolve the arbitrary two-month detention, without
charge, of Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam and two colleagues.
Tissainayagam, the editor of www.outreach.sl, has been detained since
March 7 along with N. Jasiharan, an outreach…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its
affiliate, the Free Media Movement (FMM), in calling on SriLanka’s Government to explain chilling and inflammatory
statements by SriLanka’s
Defence Secretary suggesting independent media should be prevented from running
reports allegedly detrimental to the security…
… policy
has been unveiled. Although far from ideal in their conception, these drafts
provide a reasonably sound basis for public debate.
The downward slide in SriLanka accelerated, and the media in
that country continues to be a casualty of unrelenting war. The relationship
between the State, civil society and the media has…
…International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the actions of government officials in denying photojournalists access to report on casualties of the latest violence between the SriLankan Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).According to the Free Media Movement (FMM), an IFJ affiliate, four photographers were barred from entering hospitals…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is concerned that police in SriLanka have not investigated threats made against K. Rushangan, treasurer of the Free Media Movement (FMM), an IFJ affiliate.
According to FMM, Rushangan was first threatened on April 13 by a caller identifying himself as "Ealaventhan" and claiming to be from the Liberation Tigers…
…
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes reports that attacks against journalists and media workers at the state-owned SriLanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) television station have ceased since March 20.
However, the IFJ continues to hold grave concerns for the safety and well-being of J.S Tisseinayagam, the editor of www.outreachsl.com, who…
… staff changes, dramatic shifts in job responsibilities, recruitments and dismissals have been heavily influenced by successive governments. “Independent media is essential in SriLanka, particularly as the Government has shown a consistent lack of respect for free media and the rights of journalists across the island,” said IFJ Asia-Pacific Director…
