Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Head of a Tamil radio station held in Colombo under anti-terror law
பதிவர் லோஷனைப் பிடித்துவைத்திருப்பது பற்றிய எல்லைகளற்ற ஊடகவியலாளர்கள் விடுத்த அறிக்கை.
இலங்கையின் ஊடகவியலாளர்களின் மீதான அடக்குமுறை பற்றிய பதிவுகள் வரவேற்கப்படுகிறன.
Head of a Tamil radio station held in Colombo under anti-terror law
Statement by RSF
Reporters Without Borders today urged the Sri Lankan authorities to release the manager of a Tamil radio A. R. V. Loshan, who was arrested at his home in the capital Colombo on 15 November.
The senior radio presenter and current manager of FM Vettri was picked up by Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) agents.
The worldwide press freedom organisation said that TID allegations against him of having "links with terrorists" and "aiding terrorist activities" should be based on evidence and not on simple conjecture.
"The growing number of arrests by the authorities of Tamil journalists under the anti-terror law gives currency to the common rumor that many of them are Tamil Tiger agents, but also undermines the anti-terror law itself", the organisation added.
A colleague of the journalist told Reporters Without Borders that his mother had been allowed to visit him. He is in good health and hopes to be quickly released.
Police questioned another journalist on Vettri FM before arresting the director. The 32-year-old with more than 10 years radio experience has worked for five years for the station, which is owned by the ABC press group.
Reporters Without Borders pointed out that two other Tamil journalists - J. S. Tissainayagam and Vettivel Jasikaran - are already being held under the anti-terror law. The fiancée of the second of them, Valarmathi Jasikaran, has also been imprisoned in Colombo in very harsh conditions.
Vincent Brossel
Asia - Pacific Desk
Reporters Sans Frontières
47 rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
33 1 44 83 84 70
33 1 45 23 11 51 (fax)
asia@rsf.org
www.rsf.org
இலங்கையின் ஊடகவியலாளர்களின் மீதான அடக்குமுறை பற்றிய பதிவுகள் வரவேற்கப்படுகிறன.
Head of a Tamil radio station held in Colombo under anti-terror law
Statement by RSF
Reporters Without Borders today urged the Sri Lankan authorities to release the manager of a Tamil radio A. R. V. Loshan, who was arrested at his home in the capital Colombo on 15 November.
The senior radio presenter and current manager of FM Vettri was picked up by Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) agents.
The worldwide press freedom organisation said that TID allegations against him of having "links with terrorists" and "aiding terrorist activities" should be based on evidence and not on simple conjecture.
"The growing number of arrests by the authorities of Tamil journalists under the anti-terror law gives currency to the common rumor that many of them are Tamil Tiger agents, but also undermines the anti-terror law itself", the organisation added.
A colleague of the journalist told Reporters Without Borders that his mother had been allowed to visit him. He is in good health and hopes to be quickly released.
Police questioned another journalist on Vettri FM before arresting the director. The 32-year-old with more than 10 years radio experience has worked for five years for the station, which is owned by the ABC press group.
Reporters Without Borders pointed out that two other Tamil journalists - J. S. Tissainayagam and Vettivel Jasikaran - are already being held under the anti-terror law. The fiancée of the second of them, Valarmathi Jasikaran, has also been imprisoned in Colombo in very harsh conditions.
Vincent Brossel
Asia - Pacific Desk
Reporters Sans Frontières
47 rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
33 1 44 83 84 70
33 1 45 23 11 51 (fax)
asia@rsf.org
www.rsf.org
Labels: media
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
ஸ்ரீலங்கா ஊடகவியலாளர்களின் உயிருக்கு உத்தரவாதமில்லை. உபத்திரவமே.
ஸ்ரீலங்கா ஊடகவியலாளர்களின் உயிருக்கு உத்தரவாதமில்லை. ஊறும் உபத்திரவமுமே. ஊடகவியலாளர்களின் உயிர்களிலே அக்கறை கொண்டு ஊடகவியலாளர்களைப் பாதுகாப்பதற்கான குழு அறிக்கை விட்டுள்ளது. வாசித்துப் பாருங்கள்.
CPJ fears for Sri Lankan journalists as cease-fire ends
January 9, 2008
His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa
President of Sri Lanka and Minister of Defense, Public Security, Law and Order
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo 1
Sri Lanka
Via facsimile: +94 11 2430 590
Dear President Rajapaksa,
As your government prepares to withdraw from its 2002 cease-fire agreement with Tamil separatists, the Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by reports that members of your government have tried to intimidate journalists in the Sri Lankan media in recent weeks. In at least two instances, an official used the word “traitor” against a journalist, which is decidedly inflammatory in a country that has seen civil war rage since 1983.
We fear that when the end of the cease-fire officially goes into effect on January 16 and fighting resumes, your government will seek to further intimidate Sri Lankan journalists who might report critically on activities of the government or the Sri Lankan military. These fears are not unfounded, given recent incidents such as these:
At a press conference on January 7, Minister of Social Services and Social Welfare K. N. Douglas Devananda called the well-respected senior journalist Sri Ranga Jeyarathnam a “traitor” and accused him of being in league with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Minister Devaananda made his remarks because he was angry about a documentary Jeyarathnam had aired on his program on the private Shakthi TV channel about the assassination of Tamil opposition politician T. Maheshvaran on New Year’s Day, it was widely reported in Sri Lanka’s media.
On January 2, in an interview published in the state-controlled Sinhala daily Dinamina, the commander of the Sri Lankan army, Maj. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, called unnamed journalists “traitors” and referred to the “treachery” of the media. According to a translation of Fonseka’s remarks supplied by the Sri Lankan media rights group Free Media Movement, he said: “The biggest obstacle [to fighting Tamil separatists] is the unpatriotic media. I am not blaming all journalists. I know 99 percent of media and journalists are patriotic and doing their jobs properly. But unfortunately, we have a small number of traitors among the journalists. They are the biggest obstacle. All other obstacles we can surmount.”
We wrote to you on October 2, 2007, about written and verbal attacks that appeared on the Ministry of Defense’s Web site about Iqbal Athas, consultant editor and defense correspondent for The Sunday Times of Sri Lanka. The accusations effectively equated Athas’ journalism with terrorism, after he reported on setbacks the army faced in fighting with Tamil secessionists. The lengthy attack on Athas’ reporting accused him of “insulting our soldiers’ sacrifices” and claims his reporting “has been assisting in the psychological operations of the LTTE terrorists.” The article claims that “promoting terrorism had become a lucrative business” for Athas. Athas was awarded CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 1994.
On December 27, Minister of Labor Mervyn de Silva accompanied by a large group of men, stormed the state-run television station Sri Lanka Rupavahini Cooperation and assaulted the station’s news director, T.M.G. Chandrasekara. The station’s staff held the minister and his supporters while police were summoned, and videotaped the minister’s apology for his actions on camera. De Silva was apparently angry because a speech he had delivered the previous day was been fully reported by the station. The government has made no mention of the ugly incident, nor has it apologized to the station’s staff for the behavior of one of its cabinet ministers.
As Sri Lanka apparently prepares to resume military action against the Tamil separatists, we call on you and members of your government to respect the vital role journalists play in an open democratic society. Verbal, written, and physical assaults on journalists are attacks on the very fabric of a democratic society. We call on you to make to ensure that members of your government refrain from such acts of intimidation.
Sincerely,
Joel Simon
Executive Director
இங்கே முழுக்க வாசிக்கலாம்
http://www.cpj.org/protests/08ltrs/asia/sri09jan08pl.html
CPJ fears for Sri Lankan journalists as cease-fire ends
January 9, 2008
His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa
President of Sri Lanka and Minister of Defense, Public Security, Law and Order
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo 1
Sri Lanka
Via facsimile: +94 11 2430 590
Dear President Rajapaksa,
As your government prepares to withdraw from its 2002 cease-fire agreement with Tamil separatists, the Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by reports that members of your government have tried to intimidate journalists in the Sri Lankan media in recent weeks. In at least two instances, an official used the word “traitor” against a journalist, which is decidedly inflammatory in a country that has seen civil war rage since 1983.
We fear that when the end of the cease-fire officially goes into effect on January 16 and fighting resumes, your government will seek to further intimidate Sri Lankan journalists who might report critically on activities of the government or the Sri Lankan military. These fears are not unfounded, given recent incidents such as these:
At a press conference on January 7, Minister of Social Services and Social Welfare K. N. Douglas Devananda called the well-respected senior journalist Sri Ranga Jeyarathnam a “traitor” and accused him of being in league with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Minister Devaananda made his remarks because he was angry about a documentary Jeyarathnam had aired on his program on the private Shakthi TV channel about the assassination of Tamil opposition politician T. Maheshvaran on New Year’s Day, it was widely reported in Sri Lanka’s media.
On January 2, in an interview published in the state-controlled Sinhala daily Dinamina, the commander of the Sri Lankan army, Maj. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, called unnamed journalists “traitors” and referred to the “treachery” of the media. According to a translation of Fonseka’s remarks supplied by the Sri Lankan media rights group Free Media Movement, he said: “The biggest obstacle [to fighting Tamil separatists] is the unpatriotic media. I am not blaming all journalists. I know 99 percent of media and journalists are patriotic and doing their jobs properly. But unfortunately, we have a small number of traitors among the journalists. They are the biggest obstacle. All other obstacles we can surmount.”
We wrote to you on October 2, 2007, about written and verbal attacks that appeared on the Ministry of Defense’s Web site about Iqbal Athas, consultant editor and defense correspondent for The Sunday Times of Sri Lanka. The accusations effectively equated Athas’ journalism with terrorism, after he reported on setbacks the army faced in fighting with Tamil secessionists. The lengthy attack on Athas’ reporting accused him of “insulting our soldiers’ sacrifices” and claims his reporting “has been assisting in the psychological operations of the LTTE terrorists.” The article claims that “promoting terrorism had become a lucrative business” for Athas. Athas was awarded CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 1994.
On December 27, Minister of Labor Mervyn de Silva accompanied by a large group of men, stormed the state-run television station Sri Lanka Rupavahini Cooperation and assaulted the station’s news director, T.M.G. Chandrasekara. The station’s staff held the minister and his supporters while police were summoned, and videotaped the minister’s apology for his actions on camera. De Silva was apparently angry because a speech he had delivered the previous day was been fully reported by the station. The government has made no mention of the ugly incident, nor has it apologized to the station’s staff for the behavior of one of its cabinet ministers.
As Sri Lanka apparently prepares to resume military action against the Tamil separatists, we call on you and members of your government to respect the vital role journalists play in an open democratic society. Verbal, written, and physical assaults on journalists are attacks on the very fabric of a democratic society. We call on you to make to ensure that members of your government refrain from such acts of intimidation.
Sincerely,
Joel Simon
Executive Director
இங்கே முழுக்க வாசிக்கலாம்
http://www.cpj.org/protests/08ltrs/asia/sri09jan08pl.html
Labels: media, protect, sri lanka
