Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan press in peril, IPFM findsPosted Dec 17 2008
Members of five international press freedom organizations visited Sri Lanka in October and found “a continuation of murders, attacks, abductions, intimidation and harassment” of journalists as wll as “the use of an anti-terrorism law for the first time in the democratic world, to punish journalists purely for what they have written.”
The International Press Freedom Mission (IPFM) met with various citizens and groups connected to Sri Lankan media during the visit, including the president, the Ministerial Committee on Journalists’ Grievances, media owners, journalists, editors and human rights and legal experts.
The mission found that conditions for journalists in Sri Lanka had deteriorated since June 2007, when IPFM last visited. The government’s treatment of Sri Lankan media was of particular concern for media institutions covering the ongoing conflict with Sri Lankan separatist group the Tamil Tigers. The IPFM uncovered violent tactics serving as an “effort to curtail independent and critical reporting.”
In a World Press Freedom Index recently published by Reporters Without Borders, Sri Lanka received the lowest press freedom rating of any democratic country in the world.