Tamil aid ship condition ‘critical’ despite Indian assurance

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 June 2009, 00:40 GMT]
Despite the Indian government’s statement that the Sri Lankan government had relented on its refusal to allow the aid ship sent by Tamil expatriates to dock in Colombo harbour and that the supplies for Tamil refugees would be offloaded by the Indian Red Cross, there has been no action at all, the organisers of the mercy mission said Friday. In an urgent press release, they said the MV ‘Captain Ali’ has been at sea for 51 days and the condition of its crew and passengers is now critical.
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Wholesale attack on Jaffna newspapers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 01:36 GMT]
All the local newspapers of Jaffna that defied publishing an anonymous and defiling notice against the LTTE came under attack by an armed group in the early hours of Thursday. The notice was brought out in the name of 'Tamil Front Protecting the Country' allegedly linked to a paramilitary group operating with Colombo. Thousands of copies of the local newspapers, Valampuri, Uthayan and Thinakkural (Jaffna edition), were burnt down wholesale in huge flames by the armed group allegedly operated by the Sri Lankan military intelligence at Aanaippanthi and Kannathiddi junctions at 5:00 a.m. Thursday, while the newspapers were being taken for distribution.
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World Press Freedom Day observed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 16:15 GMT]
“It is of great importance that the World Press Freedom Day is celebrated in Jaffna peninsula where press freedom is completely restricted,” Chief guest of the event, C. V. K. Sivagnanam, the president of Jaffna peninsula NGOs Federation, said in the event organized by North Ceylon Journalists’ Association (NCJA) Sunday around 10:30 a. m in Jaffna University Media Training Centre, chaired by NCJA President, V. Kathirkamathamby. The portraits of the slain journalists of Jaffna peninsula and Tharmaratnam Sivaram, Tharaki, from Batticaloa and late senior journalists were unveiled in the NCJA office in the Media Training Centre at the beginning of the event, sources in Jaffna said. Veteran media photographer, Changkarakambar Kahiravelu, 76, was honoured for his continuing dedicated service to the media for the past 45 years, in the event.
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RSF campaigns for release of three women journalists

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 01:38 GMT]
Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Saturday said it is mounting a campaign for the release of three women journalists, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who has been sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran on a charge of spying for the United States, and two American journalists employed by California-based Current TV, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who have been held in Pyongyang since 17 March. In the 2009 report released earlier in the year the RSF said in Sri Lanka, "[m]urders, physical assaults, kidnappings, threats and censorship are the lot of Sri Lanka's journalists. Top government officials, including the defence minister, are directly implicated in the serious press freedom violations that accompanied the military offensive against the Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels."
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Gotabaya's "malice borne of intolerance" cause for incarceration, says Vithyatharan's petition

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 16:27 GMT]
In a Fundamental Rights petition filed with the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka, Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, present editor of the newspapers Sudar Oli and Uthayan, states that he was "victimized as a result of the views and opinions expressed in some of his articles published in the aforesaid newspapers, Sudar Oli and Uthayan, " and adds that Gotabaya's "displeasure and intolerance" towards his articles that criticize the Government, and Gotabaya's "malice borne of intolerance," were reasons for his incarceration.
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Tamil journalists applaud “Women of Courage” award to Srinithy Nandasekaran

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 11:46 GMT]
Magistrate Srinithy Nandasekaran, who had served earlier in the courts of Vavuniyaa, Jaffna, and Oorkaavattu'rai (Kayts), and currently a Magistrate in the Colombo Juvenile Court, was recognized as a South Asia Regional Finalist for the US Secretary of State's Women of Courage Award by the U.S. Ambassador Blake in Colombo on 24th March. Commenting on the award, a senior journalist said: "Ms Nandasekaran took strong, legally admissible steps to reign in on the Sri Lankan military's attempts to encroach into basic freedom of movement and rights of Jaffna residents. She ruled that the military cannot wear black masks during duty, and was a staunch critic of the road blocks the military forces set up that created hardship to the normal life of civilians."
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RSF "outraged" at grenade attack on Jaffna Uthayan HQ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 14:26 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders (RF), a Paris-based media watchdog, expressed "outrage" at the grenade attack at the Uthayan Head Quarters building in Jaffna Tuesday night, and urged "the Sri Lankan authorities to carry out a thorough investigation with the aim of arresting those responsible and bringing them to trial." RSF noted that Senior Sri Lanka Government officials had recently told news organisations not to publish reports about civilian victims of the fighting in the northern district of Vanni or not to reproduce LTTE interviews, but that Uthayan and other newspaper, Valampuri, had nonetheless printed photos of children killed in Vanni.
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Uthayan office in Jaffna attacked

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 23:57 GMT]
The main office of Uthayan Tamil daily in Jaffna came under grenade attack Tuesday night around 11:10 p.m., the administration of the paper told media in Colombo. Tamil media circles added that the attack had come after verbal instructions by the top officials of Rajapaksa government not to publish stories related to civilian casualties in Vanni or reproduce the contents of interviews given by the LTTE officials to news agencies and media. Uthayan and Valampuri newspapers have recently printed photos of children being killed in the Sri Lankan attacks inside 'safety zone' in Vanni.
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Uthayn editor Vithiyatharan detained for 3 more months

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 19:12 GMT]
Colombo Pettah Court majistrate, Jegan Balapitiya, extended Wednesday the detention period of Uthayan editor Vithiyatharan for 3 more months when he was produced before him by Prevention of Crime Branch police, sources in Colombo said. The police requested the court for the extension of detention of Vithiyatharan on the directions of Gothabaya Rajapakse, Defence Secretary and the brother of President Rajapakse, the sources added.
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Gotabaya comments on "media freedom"

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 March 2009, 13:30 GMT]
"Mentioning the editor's [Vidyadaran's] name provoked a surprising response," says Amos Roberts, reporter for Australia's Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) program Dateline, in his 25 minute report from Sri Lanka, referring to the spontaneous display of anger by Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse who had ordered Vidyadaran's arrest and accused Vidyadaran of "terrorism" saying, "he is involved in recent air attacks and I am telling you if you try to give coverup for that person you have blood in your hands [...] I am telling you he is a terrorist. He is responsible for co-ordinating air-attacks in Colombo." Gotabaya Rajapakse is a citizen of the United States.
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CCD Police interrogates senior Tamil journalists in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2009, 11:04 GMT]
Colombo Crime Division police in Demattagoda interrogated Saturday and Sunday the President of Sri Lankan Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA), Vice President and Secretary in connection with Chudaroli Editor Vithyatharan who was ‘abducted’ first and later claimed ‘arrested’ and now detained at the Crime Division of the police in Demattagoda, media circles in Colombo said. Some Tamil journalists working for the English media too have been subjected to similar interrogation, the sources added.
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RSF seeks guarantee of Vithyatharan's safety

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 21:51 GMT]
Expressing extreme shock at today's forcible arrest of Vithyatharan, the editor of Sudar Oli, a Colombo-based Tamil daily, the Reporters without Borders (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, sought gurantee of safety of the arrested Editor from Sri Lanka's Media minister, Mr. Laxman Yapa, a press release issued by RSF said.
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Vithyatharan attacked by 'abductors' inside white-van

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 17:06 GMT]
The wife of Chudaroli (Sudar Oli) Editor who was 'abducted' first and later claimed 'arrested' by the Sri Lankan Police, told media Thursday night that her husband had been attacked on his head and heels inside the white-van by the abductors. Meanwhile, Vithyatharan was dumped at Demattagoda by the abductors, Police told Mrs. Kala Vithytharan Thursday evening. However, Vithyatharan is detained at the Crime Division of the Police in Demattagoda where his wife visited him with their three children with police permission.
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Prominent Tamil Editor abducted in Colombo, later claimed 'arrested'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 05:08 GMT]
Armed persons and men in police uniform who arrived in three white vans Thursday morning abducted Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, 51, the prominent editor of Jaffna-based Uthayan daily and Colombo-based Chudaroli, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. The abduction comes six days after Mr. Vithyatharan was grilled by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Department (TID). The TID had questioned him Sunday for six hours on news and views that appeared in his papers on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) attacks on civilians in Vanni and about his interactions with the officials of the Tigers in the past. Police spokesman Gunasekara, who first said that the editor was abducted by unidentified men, hours later claimed that he had been arrested.
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US Ambassador Robert Blake cancels visit to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 22:59 GMT]
Ambassador of United States of America in Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, who was expected to be the chief guest in the opening ceremony of the ‘Health Village’ constructed in Pa’n’nai in Jaffna Wednesday cancelled his visit to Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Colombo, James R. Moore who arrived in Jaffna Tuesday is expected to fill the place of the US Ambassador, the sources added.
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Sri Lanka warns interfering Westerners

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2009, 14:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s hardline government warned Sunday that Western ambassadors, news agencies and INGOs of "dire consequences" if they attempt to give the LTTE a second breath of life. "They will be chased away (if they try) to give a second wind to the LTTE terrorists at a time the security forces, at heavy cost, are dealing them the final death blow," Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told The Sunday Island.
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Uthayan Editor threatened by EPDP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 19:47 GMT]
The Free Media Movement (FMM), an independent Colombo-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Wednesday, accused leader of Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Douglas Devananda for threatening Managing Editor of Jaffna Daily Uthayan, and condemned the disruption to the distribution of the paper by the paramilitaries of the EPDP.
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IPI condemns blocking of Jaffna newspaper distribution

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 2008, 13:50 GMT]
The Press Institute (IPI), a Vienna-based media watchdog, expressed deep concern on the harassment of journalists of Jaffna daily Uthayan and interference with the distribution of the Uthayan newspaper by "members of the paramilitary groups linked to the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP)," in a letter sent to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse Thursday.
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Posters warn dire consequences to curfew violators in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 07:01 GMT]
Anonymous wall posters announcing that persons found on streets during Sri Lanka Army (SLA) imposed curfew hours in Jaffna peninsula will be shot at sight without any warning, were found pasted on walls Sunday and Monday in areas including Vadamaraadchi, Thenmaraadchi and Jaffna town in the peninsulasources in Jaffna said.
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TMVP operative shot dead in Ea'raavoor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2008, 08:25 GMT]
Two men armed with hand guns entered an office of TMVP, shot and killed a paramilitary operative, said to be the coordinator of TMVP in Tha'lavaay in Ea'raavoor of Batticaloa district, Friday around 8:45 p.m. One person was rushed to hospital with injuries.
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