Protest in Sri Lanka condemns attack on Tamil journalist

Photo courtesy: vikalpa.org

Deutsche Presse Agentur | Monsters and Critics
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Media personnel and activists demonstrated Tuesday in Colombo, condemning an attack that seriously injured a senior Tamil journalist in northern Sri Lanka.

Ganasundaram Kuhanathan, 58, was hit in the head Friday with an iron rod as he was leaving the Uthayan newspaper office in Jaffna, 390 kilometres north of Colombo. He was in intensive care in hospital.

An estimated 500 journalists rallied against the government, saying it had failed to protect media freedom, and against the police, saying they had failed to investigate previous attacks on members of the media.

The Uthayan, for which Kuhanathan was news editor, is an independent newspaper operating in the former war-torn Jaffna Peninsula, which saw fighting and attacks during the government's conflict with separatist rebels from the Tamil ethnic minority.

The newspaper has come under attack more than 10 times since 2000. At least six people, including two journalists, have been killed, and the paper's rinting press has been set on fire.

It continued to print from 1987 to 1990 in a bunker to avoid being hit by airstrikes. It also resorted to printing on cardboard sheets at the time because of a lack of newsprint.

The owner of the newspaper, E Saravanapawan, is a member of Parliament from the opposition Tamil National Alliance, which won the majority of councils in a local election held July 23 on the Jaffna Peninsula, defeating the ruling party, led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Sunil Jayasekara, a spokesman for the Free Media Movement, said the protesters demanded the government carry out a full inquiry into the attack on Kuhannathan and ensure that media freedom is protected.

'We are not happy with the progress of previous investigations carried out into the attacks on this paper as well other cases,' he said.

Rajapaksa has called on the Criminal Investigations Department to submit a report about the attack, but media rights groups said similar orders have been given before without achieving results.

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