{"id":43162,"date":"2015-09-19T18:33:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T22:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=43162"},"modified":"2015-09-19T18:33:14","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T22:33:14","slug":"sri-lanka-among-highest-in-the-world-for-impunity-in-killing-of-journalists-and-media-workers-oisl-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=43162","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Among Highest in the World for Impunity in Killing of Journalists and Media Workers \u2013 OISL Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Office of the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Investigation on Sri Lanka(OISL) report has stated that the number of journalists and media workers killed in Sri Lanka also ranks among the highest in the world and placed severe restrictions on freedom of expression.<\/strong>
\n
\nThe OISL report also says that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented the killing of 13 journalists in Sri Lanka between 2004 and 2009 and ranks the country among the top ten countries with the highest rate of impunity for killings of journalists.<\/em><\/p>\n

The OISL report has focused on the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge Editor of \u201cThe Sunday Leader\u201d.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n


\nRelevant excerpts from the OISL report relating to the killing of journalists are given below –<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Killings of journalists <\/strong><\/p>\n

The number of journalists and media workers killed in Sri Lanka also ranks among the highest in the world and placed severe restrictions on freedom of expression. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) documented the killing of 13 journalists in Sri Lanka between 2004 and 2009 and ranks the country among the top ten countries with the highest rate of impunity for killings of journalists. <\/p>\n

In its 2006 global annual Press Freedom Index, the organisation Reporters without Borders has ranked Sri Lanka as one of the worst ranking democratic countries, noting a significantly deteriorating situation since 2005. An increasing number of Sri Lankan journalists left the country out of fear for their own safety and that of their families, having received death threats accusing them of being traitors for raising concerns about human rights violations. <\/p>\n

The attacks on journalists resulted in a growing climate of self-censorship which persisted until a new Government took office in January 2015. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The LLRC report observed with concern the number of journalists and media institutions attacked, recommending that \u201csteps should be taken to expeditiously conclude investigations so that offenders are brought to book without delay\u201d. <\/p>\n

OISL met with several journalists who had been forced to leave the country after receiving threats and who had witnessed how other journalists received multiple death threats prior to being killed. OISL also received a number of allegations from witnesses, including some closely involved with the security forces, of the security forces\u2019 direct participation in attacks against the media and journalists perceived to be critical of the Government, sometimes in collusion with paramilitary groups. Recent developments in the case of disappeared cartoonist Eknaligoda \u2013 with the arrest of several military personnel appear to indicate military involvement in such cases (see chapter on Enforced Disappearances). <\/p>\n

OISL notes that attacks against journalists in Sri Lanka were widespread, occurred over an extended period of time, continued throughout and after the period covered by OISL\u2019s mandate, and appear systematic in their repeated targeting of specific media known for being critical of Government policies or figures. In several instances, media workers were offered insufficient protection measures despite recurrent attacks against them and there has been little progress in investigations of their killings.
\n
\n
\nThe following are cases of targeted killings of journalists and media workers documented by OISL: <\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Attacks on Uthayan
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The newspaper Uthayan in Jaffna has been the target of multiple attacks which continued until recently. In the evening of 2 May 2006, armed Tamil-speaking gunmen entered the newspaper\u2019s office in Jaffna and killed two employees, Ranjith Kumar and Suresh Kumar, wounded two others and caused extensive damage to computers and other equipment. The day before the killings, the newspaper had published a cartoon of Douglas Devananda, the Tamil leader of the EPDP paramilitary organisation. <\/p>\n

The killers left by motorbike and managed to escape despite the fact that the office was in the immediate vicinity of a military base and security force checkpoints. The Government claimed that investigations into the killings indicated that they were done in a manner to implicate the Army and bring the Government into disrepute. However, OISL has received allegations that the attack was planned jointly between military intelligence in Jaffna and EPDP and carried out by EPDP members. <\/p>\n

According to Government sources, five suspects were arrested and brought before the Magistrate\u2019s Court in Jaffna on 3 May 2006. They were released on bail due to lack of evidence. CID investigated allegations of the involvement of a member of the EPDP but \u201cno useful information was forthcoming to incriminate him in the incident.\u201d <\/p>\n

On 29 April 2007, an Uthayan reporter Selvaraja Rajivaram was shot dead, reportedly while riding his bike some 600 metres from a military checkpoint in Jaffna. There has been no Government response to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial execution\u2019s request for information on investigations into this case. On 29 July 2011, the Uthayan editor Gnanasundaram Kuganaadan was seriously injured on his way home from the office. According to Government sources, two individuals were arrested in 2011 but released without further legal proceedings against them on 4 February 2013. <\/p>\n

While the perpetrators of the various attacks against Uthayan newspaper have not been identified, the modus operandi and the information obtained by OISL indicate that there are reasonable grounds to believe that they were carried out by paramilitary groups operating in collusion with security forces.<\/p>\n

\t\tSunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the morning of 8 January 2009, Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, an outspoken critic of the Government, was killed on a main street in Colombo while on the way to his office. The cause of death was never formally established: some witnesses state that he was beaten to death at a busy intersection near a checkpoint within the high security zone of the airport, other reports allege that he was shot. The editor had received numerous death threats and had been the victim of previous attacks. In an editorial, published posthumously, he wrote that \u2018murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty\u2026when finally I am killed, it will be the Government that kills me.\u2019 <\/p>\n

There has been little progress in the investigations so far, although Government sources indicate that the case is being reactivated, having been handed from TID back to CID. The next court hearing was set for 18 September 2015. A number of military officers had been arrested but released, amid allegations of poor handling of key evidence, including sim cards used to track the victim. <\/p>\n

Following the killing of Mr. Wickrematunge, two other editors at the Sunday Leader received death threats, after articles were published about video material allegedly showing the execution of Tamil detainees by Sri Lankan soldiers during the final phases of the military operation in 2009. The letters, handwritten in red ink, reportedly stated the following: \u2018if you write anymore, we will kill you, slice you into pieces\u2019. Mr. Lasantha Wickrematunga received a similar red ink handwritten death threat prior to his death. <\/p>\n

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The Office of the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Investigation on Sri Lanka(OISL) report has stated that the number of journalists and media workers killed in Sri Lanka also ranks among the highest in the world and placed severe restrictions on freedom of expression. The OISL report also says that the Committee to Protect Journalists …<\/p>\n

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