Journalists are 'traitors', says Sri Lanka's state TV

By Roy Greenslade | The Guardian
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Sri Lanka's state-controlled media has described journalists as "traitors" following the UN human rights council's call for an investigation into the country's alleged abuses during its war against Tamil separatists.

In an attack on Sri Lankan journalists, both at home and in exile, state television accused them of "betraying the motherland."

Although the broadcaster did not name the journalists who had participated in the human rights council sessions, it screened "thinly disguised photographs of them" and said it would reveal their names soon.

Journalists in the capital, Colombo, told the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) they were concerned about the campaign against them.

The CPJ responded by calling on the Sri Lankan government to halt its intimidation of journalists.

"The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has a long and alarming record of intolerance to criticism," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia programme coordinator.

"The international community must be extra vigilant in ensuring that Sri Lankan journalists are not subjected to reprisals for voicing their concerns to the human rights council."

The UN resolution called on Sri Lanka to investigate abuses carried out by its military in 2009, at the end of the decades-long war with separatists known as the Tamil Tigers.

© The Guardian