“No
other profession calls
on its practitioners to
lay down their lives for
their art save the armed
forces - and, in Sri Lanka,
journalism. In the course
of the last few years,
the independent media
have increasingly come
under attack. Electronic
and print institutions
have been burned, bombed,
sealed and coerced. Countless
journalists have been
harassed, threatened and
killed. It has been my
honour to belong to all
those categories, and
now especially the last.”—
Lasantha
Wickrematunge,
former editor of the Sunday
Leader and UNESCO World
Press Freedom Prize winner
for 2009. |
|
In 2009, Reporters Without Borders
ranked Sri Lanka 162 out of 175 countries
in the world for press freedom.
Since 2006, 14 journalists and media
workers have been killed. Threats,
assaults, jail, grenade bombs and
intimidation are among the realities
faced by free media in the country,
leading state-sanctioned news to be
the main source of information. Reporters
face incredible difficulty in deciphering
the truth in this environment. During
the latter stages of the war, media
was barred from the affected areas.
Britain’s Channel 4 News, which covered
the camp conditions, was ordered out
of the country. In the aftermath of
the war, both foreign and domestic
media were banned from covering elections
in Sri Lanka’s north.
Here are some of the incidents
which have happened this year alone:
 |
Lasantha
Wickrematunge was murdered
on his way to work. He fingered
the government for his death in
an editorial
written before his death. His
paper, Sunday Leader, had been
in a legal battle with Sri Lankan
defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa,
who is also the president’s brother.
|
|
The new head editors of the
Sunday Leader received death
threats. |
|
Three foreign journalists were
kicked
out of the country. |
|
Newspaper journalist and media
freedom activist threatened
at her home. |
|
The employees of Uthayan, a
newspaper in Sri Lanka, received
death
threats. |
|
Associated Press reporter, Ravi
Nessman, was denied
visa renewal after reporting on
the internally displaced people
|
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