Sri Lanka call on freedoms: CEN 3.28.08 p 6. March 31, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Church of Ceylon, Church of England Newspaper, Free Speech.trackback
The Bishop of Colombo has denounced government indifference over attacks on the press in Sri Lanka, saying its inaction amounted to collusion with those who sought to stifle a free press.
The statement by Bishop Duleep de Chickera followed a series of politically motivated attacks on reporters and editors of the state controlled Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) television network. Five reporters who were critical of the government’s conduct of the war against Tamil separatists have been seriously injured by unknown assailants. The official police response has been the attacks are unrelated actions by small time hoodlums.
The church has also questioned the March 17 appointment of a retired army general to the post of director of administration of the television network, placing the broadcaster firmly in the hands of the military. Following the army takeover last Monday, police sealed off the station breaking up a threatened strike by staff.
Bishop de Chickera said the “continuing harassment and arrests of media persons are both disturbing and frustrating.”
The “focus of the nation” was now on the “brazen and systematic violence” meted out to reporters questioning the regime, and the “recent arrest and indefinite detention without access to lawyers of a group of journalists associated with a news web site and printing press,” he said.
The failure to stem the assaults was an “indictment against the entire police force.” While the police were quick to locate and arrest “those considered enemies of the State,” the government’s inaction in protecting journalists raised “questions of professional bias.
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