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| Indirect support form the police |
The Jaffna Press Club strongly condemns
attempts by the State to prevent the knowledge -based development workshops for
Tamil speaking journalists tarnishing them with a racist brush in circumstances
where the threats against journalists and media organizations from the North of
Sri Lanka are already at a very high level.An investigative journalism training workshop
organized by Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) for journalists from
the North-East was once again disrupted by state assisted goons. The workshop
was disrupted by a group of more than hundred persons who carried out a protest
against it. On the 22nd of May, 2014, the same workshop organized by
TISL at Girithale, in Polonnaruwa, for journalists of the North-East was
suspended after the direct intervention of the security forces. That workshop
had been organized with the title of ‘Investigative reporting on the enforcement
of the recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission
(LLRC)’. After receiving instructions from the Defence Ministry, military
personnel from the Minneriya Army Base visited the site and issued a warning
that led to the workshop being suspended. The journalists who had come for the
workshop were sent back. The workshop was rescheduled for the 6th of
June, 2014 and began at a hotel in Negombo. It is in this situation that a
group of persons held a protest outside the hotel demanding that the workshop be
cancelled.
The chief demand of the protestors was to
cancel the workshop and turn out the journalists. It is pertinent to note that
there was no protest or objection when the same workshop was held for
journalists of our fellow race. Therefore we cannot but conclude that this
protest was held with a sinister objective. It has also become public that these
persons came well prepared for the protest.
The Sri Lankan State has been campaigning
amongst the international community stating that it has been enforcing the
recommendations made by the LLRC. It has also been continuously releasing data
and statistics relating to those who surrendered and the number of persons who
had disappeared. But in the domestic sphere we see that Tamil journalists are
denied the opportunity to even speak about the LLRC recommendations and their
enforcement.
Many journalists in the North-East have been
murdered with impunity in recent critical times. Some have been abducted or been
disappeared. A number of journalists have escaped murder attempts with serious
injuries. Such a critical situation has led to many journalists fleeing the
profession and even the country. In recent times the risky situation for
journalists of the North-East has re-escalated. In the last two months alone
atleast three journalists who worked in Jaffna have fled the country due to
threats to their lives.
While the threats against the workshop were
being made in Negombo, Sivagnanam Selvatheepan, a journalist from Jaffna who
escaped an attempt on his life has fled Sri Lanka and sought refuge in a western
country. We would like to therefore bring to the understanding of the
international community that such continuous harassment of the media makes Sri
Lanka an unfit place for journalists to live in safety and security.
-The Jaffna Press Club
