COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
2009), received a phone call from President Rajapaksa in response to an article
on high-level corruption in which the president said to Wickrematunge, ‗You
are writing lies, outrageous lies! You can attack me politically, but if you attack
me personally, I will know how to attack you personally too.‘
―There have been no further developments regarding the killing of Lasantha
Wickrematunge or the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda, a contributor to
Lanka e-news, who has been missing since January 24, 2010.‖
14.07 Freedom of the Press 2011 - Sri Lanka 252 , released on 17 October 2011 observed:
―Journalists throughout Sri Lanka, particularly those who cover human rights or military
issues, face regular intimidation and pressure from government officials at all levels.
Official rhetoric is markedly hostile toward critical or ‗unpatriotic‘journalists and media
outlets, with prominent leaders, including Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa,
often making statements that equate any form of criticism with treason. State-controlled
media and the Defense Ministry website have been used to smear and threaten
individual journalists and other activists. As a result, levels of self-censorship have risen
considerably, with many journalists unwilling to engage in reporting that is critical of the
government or Rajapaksa family, as well as issues concerning the end of the war and
potential war crimes violations.
―The level of threats and harassment against local journalists and media outlets
remained high in 2010. In addition to verbal and physical attacks from official sources,
journalists and press advocacy groups perceived as supportive of Tamil interests have
drawn the ire of Sinhalese nationalist vigilante groups. On a number of occasions,
reporters attempting to cover sensitive news stories were roughed up by police during
the course of their duties.‘
―A number of journalists received death threats in 2010, while others were subject to
attempted or actual kidnapping and assaults. Around the time of the January [2010]
presidential election, access to news websites was blocked, the Lanka newspaper was
shut down, several journalists were detained and questioned, and state media
employees were harassed.‖
14.08 The IFJ report of May 2011 253 noted that:
―Overtly, 2011 has been a period of relative calm and overall the situation has improved
from what it was during the final phase of the war and the immediate aftermath of the
2010 presidential election. No murders of journalists were reported last year. And
although there has been a decline in the number of recorded attacks on journalists
several incidents were reported.
―The reporting climate is in no way conducive to assertive journalism. Sunil Jayasekara,
convenor of the Free Media Movement (FMM) admits the situation may appear to have
252 Freedom House Freedom of the Press 2011 - Sri Lanka, released on 17 October 2011, accessed via
RefWorld http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,,LKA,,4e9bec282,0.html date accessed 23 January
2012
253 International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Free Speech in Peril: Press Freedom in South Asia 2010-
11, May 2011 http://asiapacific.ifj.org/assets/docs/043/219/7bb382b-82afadb.pdf date accessed 1 June
2011, p39-41
110 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.