Southern journalists protest in Jaffna

Photo courtesy: Vikalpa.org

BBC Sinhala
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In a rare public demonstration in northern Sri Lanka, once torn apart by war, hundreds of people have held a protest against what they say are attacks on freedom of expression there.

Seven media organisations from the south joined the protest held in front of the Jaffna Bus Stand. Former LTTE media spokes person Velayutham Thayanidhi widely known as Daya Master was also among the protesters.

Head of the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union (FMETU) Dharmasiri Lankapeli said “ government or its thugs cannot curtail the press freedom by attacking journalists.

Attacks on journalists

"Irrespective of ethnicity, all journalists will stand together against the attacks on journalists”.

He called upon the government to punish those who are responsible for attacks on journalists and media.

The crowd of journalists and media workers shouted a blunt message: don’t kill us. Saying it was the government that was intimidating their colleagues here in northern Sri Lanka, they marched carrying pictures of Gnanasundaram Kuganathan, a journalist who was beaten almost to death by a gang using iron bars.

Eyewitnesses said the police at first tried to stop the protest but held back as more joined in.

The government has announced the arrest of a man they say instigated the attack.

They say he’s a contract criminal linked to the underworld. But the editor of the newspaper on which the journalist works, said the wrong person was being blamed and he wasn’t satisfied.

Academic fled Sri Lanka

In recent days a prominent university academic who had returned to Jaffna from the United States after the war, has fled Sri Lanka for fear of his safety.

Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole, a scientist, says the government’s chief Tamil ally in Jaffna is running it as a personal fiefdom and stocking public life with his own stooges.

He had left Sri Lanka in 2006 on being threatened by the Tamil Tigers, whom he had criticised. The government accuses the Tamil media in northern Sri Lanka of ignoring a series of big development works it has undertaken.

© BBC Sinhala