SLAF bombardment kills displaced civilian, 2 wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2008, 01:48 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked a civilian settlement in Visuvamadu Thursday around 4:00 p.m., killing a 47-year-old mother of two, who displaced from Ki'linochchi suburb Uthayanakar within the last couple of days. Two women were wounded in the bombardment, Tamileelam Police said.
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Fisherman reported missing in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2008, 00:57 GMT]
A fisherman from Moor Street in Mannaar city has been abducted around 9:00 a.m. Thursday, according to a complaint by his family with humanitarian institutions in Mannaar.
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SLA deployment beefed up in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2008, 11:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army has been increasing deployment of fresh troops along the Forward Defence Lines with the supply of military hardware. The coastal stretches along the Jaffna lagoon have also been strengthened jointly by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and the SLA. Extended hours of curfew and increased restrictions on vehicular and civilian movement, blocking all crossings across the main roads, have caused tension among the residents of Jaffna. Additional troops have been brought to Jaffna city within the past 24 hours.
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Jaffna SLA Command announces security measures to Tamil dailies

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2008, 17:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri, informed the representatives of the editorial boards of the three Tamil dailies Uthayan, Valampuri and Yaazh Thinakkural published in Jaffna peninsula that the SLA has taken steps to provide police and SLA security measures for the offices of the three Tamil dailies, in a meeting held Wednesday at the SLA Head Quarters in Palaali High Security Zone.
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Slain journalists remembered in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 May 2008, 12:16 GMT]
Movement Against Media Suppression (MAMS), a common front organization consisting of five major media organizations, held a memorial event Tuesday around 6:30 p.m. in front of Fort Railway Station, Colombo, in remembrance of the 14 slain journalists. The MAMS, in a leaflet gave the statistics, describing the state of media freedom in Sri Lanka where 14 journalists were killed in recent years, 8 journalists were subjected to abductions, 4 were imprisoned, 5 electronic broadcasts were blocked, 1 website blocked, 3 records of suppressive laws against media and countless number of harassments against media and media personnel.
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Ethnic divide reflected in Sri Lanka media coverage

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 17:56 GMT]
The polarization between Sri Lanka’s ethnic communities is also reflected in coverage of the island’s protracted conflict and has rendered ‘the truth’ an inevitable casualty of war, several speakers argued last week at the annual conference in London of the International Association of Tamil Journalists (IATAJ). The day-long event at the University of Westminster was attended by one hundred invited participants and was addressed by journalists, academics and media activists, including Mr. Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, editor of the Uthayan newspaper, Mr Chandana Bandara, senior producer with the BBC’s Sinhala service and Mr. Bhagwan Singh of the Deccan Chronicle.
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Amnesty: Rights abuses flourish in secrecy, denial in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 May 2008, 02:57 GMT]
Noting that in conflict situations "without reports, pictures and film of the fighting and the violence, no-one knows enough to put the pressure on the participants to ensure human rights are respected," Amnesty International, in a media release issued Friday, said the need for such environment is "strong in Sri Lanka, where fatalities on all sides are believed to be very high with large numbers of civilians caught in the crossfire."
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Threat to Jaffna journalists from SLA, paramilitaries

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2008, 04:20 GMT]
Journalists in Jaffna face continued threats to their lives and harassment from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers and SLA-backed paramilitaries, severely impacting news coverage, and the deteriorating media freedom may lead to a complete breakdown of newspaper publications in the North, sources close to Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians told TamilNet Sunday.
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Supreme Court to hear Rights petition filed by jailed journalist

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 March 2008, 12:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Supreme Court Wednesday granted permission to hear the fundamental rights petition filed by J.S.Tissanayagam, a senior journalist at Sunday Times and Editor of the website “Outreach,” against officials of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), legal sources in Colombo said. The hearing is set for 27 March.
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Assault on media

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 March 2008, 16:08 GMT]
While the 2007 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. State Department catalogued the deteriorating climate for media freedom in Sri Lanka, State intimidation of, and violence on journalists continue in 2008. Unidentified men have broken into the houses of journalists Munusamy Parameshwari in Gampola, and Sashi Kumar and Sunetra Athugalpura in Gonawela, Kelaniya in three separate incidents in the last two days, according to media reports. Parameshawari's relatives were assaulted before the attackers got away, reports added.
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Appalling rights violations no bar to contain rebellion- RSF

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 12:24 GMT]
"The government and the military have intensified the war against the Tamil Tigers and President Mahinda Rajapakse has sworn to stamp out the rebellion, at the price of appalling human rights violations if necessary. Both the Sinhala and English-language press came under even greater pressure from the authorities in 2007. On their side, the Tamil Tigers allow no dissident voices in the areas they control," said Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) in the annual report issued Wednesday. "Some ministers behave like gang leaders," the report further described the deteriorating state of governance in Sri Lanka.
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SLA intensifies security in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 February 2008, 16:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA), following the bomb blast Thursday in Thirunelveali, Jaffna, has intensified security measures, suspending traffic for hours Friday when SLA convoys used the main roads in Jaffna peninsula, sources in Jaffna said. The death toll in the bomb blast has risen to five from four when a man injured died in Jaffna Teaching hospital Thursday night. Meanwhile, the youth and young woman shot and killed in Thenmaraadchi Friday morning have been identified.
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Contain threats against media, RSF appeals to Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2008, 16:12 GMT]
Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, expressing concern over escalating threats and violence against media personnel in Sri Lanka, in a press release issued Tuesday appealing to Mr Rajapakse, said: "Mr. President, it is not yet too late to restrain those of your close associates and political allies who sow trouble and fear among journalists," and added, "The violent behaviour of the men employed by some of your ministers is bringing the government into disrepute, a situation that will be hard to redress if nothing is done."
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2007: The year in review

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 07:34 GMT]
For the people of the NorthEast, 2007 was a grim year. Sri Lanka’s security forces and allied paramilitaries intensified their campaign of abductions (‘white van’ abductions), torture, and murder of Tamil civilians. Tamil civil society leaders bore the brunt of the counter-insurgency campaign. Jaffna remained an open prison with shortage of essential items, east falling under the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control with thousands displaced as Colombo concocts colonization schemes to make east a Sinhala majority province.
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U.K. group urges protection for Sri Lanka's rights defenders

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 December 2007, 19:49 GMT]
A U.K-based Rights Group, Tamil Information Center (TIC), in a report released this week expressed serious concern "over the plight of human rights defenders in Sri Lanka, who are facing persecution and threats to life from [Sri Lanka] government authorities," and said the situation requires "urgent intervention by the International Community." The report urged the "Government of Sri Lanka to bring to an end a cycle of cumulative disregard for human rights in general and for abuses against human rights defenders in particular and to accept the offer of the international community to establish a human rights monitoring mechanism."
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Paramilitary person shot dead in Chanthive'li

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 December 2007, 18:41 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot dead a young man attached to Karuna group Tuesday around 7:45 p.m as he was having dinner in front of his house at Chanthive'li in Ea'raavoor police division in Batticaloa district, Ea'raavoor police said. The young man was rushed to Chengkaladi hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
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Anton Balasingham memorial in London

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 December 2007, 01:05 GMT]
Expatriate Tamils in London held a one year memorial event Sunday for Mr. Anton Balasingham, the LTTE’s former theoretician and Chief Negotiator, who passed away in December 2006 after a brief battle with cancer.
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Batticaloa flood victims need urgent help - MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 December 2007, 19:49 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Batticaloa District. S. Jeyananthamoorthy, appealed to the Batticaloa Aditional Government Agent, K Maheshan, to immediately take all necessary steps to provide relief assistance to the flood victims in the Batticaloa district. Continued torrential rain is falling in Batticaloa, Amparai and Polannaruwa districts for more than 24 hours, and most of the low lying areas in Batticaloa have become submerged resulting in a large number of civilians becoming displaced from their residences, sources in the region said.
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Uthayan staffer, family man feared abducted in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 November 2007, 11:13 GMT]
A proof-reader of Uthayan Tamil daily in Jaffna is feared abducted Friday morning on his way home after night duty at Uthayan office, his parents complained at Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office. Meanwhile, a family man from Thumpa’lai, Point Pedro in Vadamaraadchi has gone missing since Friday and a 26-year old youth from Jaffna Monday sought protection to his life with HRC Jaffna due to death threats by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and SLA-backed paramilitaries, sources in Jaffna said.
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Rights group launches campaign against attacks on Journalists in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 08:03 GMT]
Expressing concern on the level of prevailing impunity of the killings of media personnel in Sri Lanka, the Asian Human Rights Commission, citing 11 cases where 12 Tamil media personnel were killed since 31 May 2004 till 29 April 2007, on Tuesday urged the public to write letters to the concerned Sri Lankan authorities demanding impartial investigation in order to identify and bring the perpetrators to justice. "Not a single person has been brought before the court," in the 11 cases, the AHRC noted and urged the public to forward a copy of their appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
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