“Refrain from Intimidation of the Media in Sri Lanka”

(January 29, New York , Sri Lanka Guardian) The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Executive Director, Joel Simon, said, Sri Lanka’s defense secretary’s call for the censorship of media reintroduce criminal defamation laws are alarming developments calling to ensure that members of Rajapaksa’s government to refrain from violence, intimidation and harassment against journalists and media personals in Sri Lanka.

"This is an open intimidation of the media," Joel Simon said.

"The Sri Lankan press sorely needs space to report independently on the escalating instability in the country, free of government intimidation," he added.

CPJ says, the defense secretary singled out Wijaya group news papers and Sunday Times as some of the media abuse their existing freedoms by reporting critically, according to the Free Media Movement translation, CPJ said

CPJ early this month wrote a letter to the Sri Lankan president, called the Lankan government and members of the government to respect the vital role journalists play in an open democratic society as verbal, written, and physical assaults on journalists are attacks on the very fabric of a democratic society.

"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," Simon's letter to the Sri Lankan president said.

The CPJ last year expressed serious concerns regarding the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression of the media in Sri Lanka and said these situations will only worsen as the government unilaterally scarped the truce with the rebels and war escalating in Sri Lanka.