FMM condemns attack on journalists

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 February 2003, 21:20 GMT]
The Free Media Movement (FMM) Friday strongly condemned the attack on the journalists who were covering the protest march of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, Thursday, in Colombo said.

The FMM said a journalist who was injured in the attack has been warded in the government hospital and the digital photographic equipment of another journalist valued nearly four hundred thousand rupees had been damaged in the attack.

Two weeks back police unleashed violence against civilians and journalists at Manipay in Jaffna district, the FMM pointed out in its statement issued Friday.

In Manipay incident two regional Tamil journalists were assaulted by the security forces and a digital camera of one of the journalists was also damaged, sources said.

In both instances the security forces have violated the professional rights of journalists. It is the bounden duty of a democratic government to prevent such incidents in the future, the FMM said in its statement.