Sri Lanka: Government urged to punish violence against independent media outlets after new attack

Sources News Release

Media Releases from members of Sources.
To submit a news release, use this form.

Sri Lanka: Government urged to punish violence against independent media outlets after new attack

January 6, 2009

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemned today′s pre-dawn attack by a dozen heavily-armed men that badly damaged the studios of the Maharaja Television/Broadcasting Network (MTV/MBC) in Pannipitiya, near Colombo, after charges that the network′s reporting of the war between the government and Tamil insurgents was not "patriotic" enough.

"Violence and threats against such privately-owned media outlets and journalists trying to impartially report on the conflict must stop," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. "The government must quickly find and punish those responsible for this latest attack and see the network is compensated.

"The attack seems to be because its coverage was not `patriotic′ enough. The network is one of the country′s few, and very popular, independent news sources. The incident recalls the November 2007 attack on the Leader Publication printing works, for which nobody has been punished."

Today′s attackers threw grenades, set fire to the main control room and then left. Susil Kindelpitiya, news editor of Sirasa TV, which is part of the network, said some staff were roughed up.

The network has been criticised for not giving enough air-time to recent government victories over the rebels, with state-run media outlets accusing it of reporting a suicide attack in Colombo on 2 January, the day the army captured the rebel capital of Kilinochchi, in northern Sri Lanka. A bomb was thrown at the network′s offices just after news of the government victory was broadcast.

The state-owned media has recently attacked MTV/MBC for supposedly being "unpatriotic," which has forced some of its journalists to censor themselves or flee the country.

For more information contact:
Reporters Without Borders
Phone: .
Website: www.rsf.org

Subject Headings and Related Resources:

Information and Media Resources from Sources
Main News Release page	Media releases from clients of the *Sources* media relations service.
*Sources* Calendar	Check out newsworthy events from across Canada.
*Sources* Directory	Search the Sources directory of experts, contacts and media spokespersons. Find how to include yourself in Sources.
Publish your news releases	*Sources* can help you distribute your media releases
Media Names & Numbers	Directory of Canada's print and broadcast media.
Parliamentary Names & Numbers	Full contact information for government, political parties, lobbyists, and embassies.

Sources home page