The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by ongoing threats to Sri Lanka’s journalists and media organizations. Anonymous letters with death threats, at left, recently sent to Sunday Leader Editor-in-Chief Frederica Jansz and News Editor Munza Mushtaq echo those that ended in the death of the paper’s founder, Lasantha Wickramatunga, in January.
“Our concern is that these most recent threats, like so many others, and the deaths of 11 journalists since President Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power in 2006, will remain unexplained and those behind them will remain unprosecuted,†said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “The air of impunity surrounding violence against the media is having a chilling effect on journalists.â€
Outspoken Sri Lankan female journalist Dileesha Abeysundera who works for the Sinhala-language edition of the Sunday Leader had come under threat by unknown gangsters. The newspaper has suffered numerous serious attacks on its staff and offices in the past.
The federal government reacted angrily after hundreds of protesting Sri Lankans vandalized the Canadian High Commission in Colombo yesterday, accusing Ottawa of supporting Tamil Tigers