Published on 3 May 2008
31 January 2010 - Crackdown on media continues
26 January 2010 - Websites blocked just hours before poll results due to be announced
26 January 2010 - All-out propaganda and intimidation in run-up to presidential election
The president’s younger brother and minister of defence, Gotabhaya Rajapakse is openly hostile to the media, denying journalists access to war zones and Tamil areas in general and urging the state media to attack independent journalists and civil society representatives. He has clearly put into effect what he said in 2008: “Journalists should not be allowed to write about military matters and strong action should be taken against those who do.” Most defence correspondents have left the country or use bodyguards, for fear of being targeted by death squads. Two Tamil journalists have been jailed under an anti-terrorism law just for criticising the military offensive he launched.
The holder of a US passport, he has blocked all investigations into murders of journalists and physical attacks on news media by paramilitary groups that do the army’s “dirty work.” In late 2008, he got a judge to issue an injunction against Leader Publications, an independent media group, forbidding it to publish any report about him. He has publicly regretted that defamation has been decriminalised in Sri Lanka.
Scores of Chinese journalists, bloggers and human rights activists were arrested, put under house arrested or expelled from Beijing before and during the Olympic Games. The Games have now finished and we call for their release !
