Media attacked in 'north and south'

--BBC--

Media campaigners in Sri Lanka expressed deep concern after three attacks on media personal and institutions in the north and south in one day.

A woman journalist in Sri Lanka says she was kidnapped, blindfolded and held for a day by people claiming to be the police.

Another journalist who usually writes on astrology is currently being questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department. In another incident in the North, copies of major Tamil newspapers were burned by members of an unidentified group.

In a separate incident in the North, copies of three major Tamil newspapers from the North of the country were destroyed by an unknown group while they were transported to be distributed early morning on Thursday.

Sunil Jayasekera, General Secretary of the Free Media Movement [FMM] condemned the attacks and the arrest of the journalist.

"As no one had been arrested and proper investigations were carried out for many such attacks on journalists, we got no choice but to blame the government." Says the FMM.

The incidents come three weeks after a male journalist was abducted and badly beaten up.

The female journalist, Krishni Ifam, has been speaking about her ordeal on a private television station and, separately, to the BBC.

"Give up journalism!"

She said men who said they were policemen forced her to get into their vehicle outside her Colombo home early on Wednesday and drove for several hours while keeping her blindfolded.

She said they'd taken her belongings, asked if she was writing articles for foreign media outlets and warned her to give up journalism altogether before releasing her in the central city of Kandy late in the day with a tiny sum of cash.

Krishni Ifam, who belongs to Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, works for a media development NGO, Internews, and used to write for a prominent Tamil-language newspaper.

Astrologer arrested

Separately a columnist who usually covers astrology was picked up late on Wednesday by men with identity cards from the Criminal Investigation Department. His wife said he was still being held 24 hours later.

In both these cases the vehicles used were said to be unmarked white vans, which have become notorious in Sri Lanka as a means of abduction and sometimes disappearance.

"The time is crucial as the election process in the north has been accelerated and intimidations of this nature may occur frequently," said E. Saravanapavan, Managing Director of Uthayan whose newspapers were burnt on Thursday

The Sri Lankan government insists that the media here are free. But many journalists say they do not feel free to write or broadcast what they want; many have been physically attacked and others have fled into exile.