Sri Lanka: White lies and brute force =NDTV=

True vs Hype The propaganda wars in Srilanka

Uthayan newspaper attack condemned

Free Media Movement (FMM) in Sri Lanka has condemned Tuesday’s attack on the Uthayan newspaper office, Jaffna.

“An attack happening at a place which is under police protection raises serious questions about the freedom of media in Sri Lanka”, says the convenor of the FMM Chulawansa Srilal.

According to media reports, the grenade attack took place on Tuesday night around 11.00 p.m.

“We heard a loud explosion and the windows were damaged” said Gnanasundram Kuhanadan, chief reporter of the Uthayan newspaper.

A police officer who was on guard duty at Uthayan newspaper office was wounded in the explosion caused by the grenade which was lobbed into the ground floor of the office.

This is the fifth time that the Udayan Newspaper office has been subjected to attack in the recent years.

Investigation

The Reporters without Borders (RSF) says that this is another attempt to stop distribution of Uthayan and comes less than a month after the arrest of N. Vithyatharan, the editor of the Tamil daily Sudar Oli, an Uthayan press group publication.

The media watch dog RSF said. “We urge the Sri Lankan authorities to carry out a thorough investigation with the aim of arresting those responsible and bringing them to trial.”

Meanwhile N. Vithyatharan the editor of the Tamil daily Sudar Oli has filed a fundamental rights petition challenging his arrest by the police.

Source : BBC

Contrary to reports, Tissanayagam not indicted yet

Detained J.S. Tissanayagam is yet to be indicted in court, an inquiry by ‘Lanka Dissent’ has found, contrary to reports in certain media today (Aug. 14th) that claimed the senior journalist has been charged.

Mr. Tissanayagam was arrested on March 07th while on a visit to the Terrorist Investigation Division and continues to be held in remand custody for 161 days now.

The columnist for ‘The Sunday Times’ and chief editor for www.outreach.com website is since being detained without any charge being filed against him.

There have been numerous calls, both locally and internationally, for his release, the most recent being in a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa by rights watchdog Human Rights Watch.

The government Peace Secretariat website on August 12th posted a response by its head Rajiv Wijesinhe, asserting that the journalist had been indicted on the basis of an article written by him in 2006.

Yesterday, a newspaper carried a report which said indictment was being filed against Mr. Tissanayagam, while several websites claimed he was charged today over the absence of financial accounts for his http://www.outreach.com website.

However, it is puzzling as to how indictment could be filed in court, which was on holiday, including on August 12th, the day on which Mr. Wijesinhe had written his response.

The ‘Lanka Dissent’ inquiry found that no charges have been filed against Mr. Tissanayagam on the past two days either.

Our attempts to reach the Attorney General’s Department for a comment were unsuccessful.

Source : LankaDissent

More Info : hier

Read on>>as_PDF