Southern Journalists meet counterparts, NGOs in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 February 2006, 15:13 GMT]
Nearly 30 journalists representing different media organizations in the South, met with Journalists from Jaffna district at the University of Jaffna Campus in Thinnaively at 3.30 p.m. Sunday, sources said. Head of Jaffna Journalists Union, K Kathirgamathamby, presided over the meeting.

The discussions centered on the difficulties journalists in Jaffna face including threats to life, and attacks on journalists by Sri Lanka security forces and by the paramilitaries working with them.

Jaffna scribes also told their companion journalists that the Police in Jaffna are increasingly reluctant to record complaints from the journalists.

Following this meeting, the Southern journalist group met with representatives of Non-governmental organizations functioning in Jaffna at 4.45 p.m. in the same location. S Paramanathan, head of the consortium of Jaffna human rights organizations, presided the meeting, sources said.

Jaffna Municipal Council commissioner CVK Sivagnanam, TRO representative K Kathirgamathamby, Sarvodaya's S Subramaniam, Head of Jaffna NGOs consortium, Sri Sakthivel, Secretary, K Thevananth, Senior Asst Secretary of Sri Lanka Teachers Union, T Panchalingam, K Mohanakumar representing the students affected by discriminatory University admission policies, and several others participated in the discussions.

The atmosphere of fear prevailing among Jaffna civilians and the reasons for the fear were discussed in the meeting. NGOs also pointed out that the tendency in Southern media to distort stories affecting Jaffna public and journalists, sources attending the meeting said.