CPJ condemns attacks on Tamil papers in Lanka

New York, Aug 1: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed serious concern about threats to distributors of two Tamil dailies -- Sudar Oli and Thinakkural -- in Batticaloa and Amparai districts of eastern Sri Lanka.

Following the threatening phone calls, the distributors stopped circulating the dailies in the area last week the CPJ stated quoting their managing editors.

On July 24, a caller identifying himself as a member of the Karuna group threatened a distributor of Sudar Oli, Managing Editor E Saravanapavan told CPJ. The group is a renegade faction of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which has been accused by the LTTE of having government support.

The caller warned the distributor not to bring the dailies from Colombo, where they are printed, to the eastern districts.

Over the next several days, threats were made to distributors and vendors of the two dailies, and the editorial staff of Thinakkural, according to staff members and the Free Media Movement, a Colombo-based press freedom advocacy organisation.

However, according to local media members of the Karuna group have denied making the threats.

The curtailment of the newspapers' distribution came amid increased fighting between LTTE and security forces. An LTTE leader told reporters that the country's long civil war had resumed after the collapse of a 2002 ceasefire.

''We condemn the repeated attacks on Tamil-language newspapers, including Sudar Oli and Thinakkural, whose staff members fear violent reprisal,'' CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said.

''As violence escalates in Sri Lanka, we call on all sides to do everything in their power to ensure that the press can operate safely.'' CPJ is a New York-based independent, nonprofit body working for safeguarding press freedom worldwide.

Earlier this year, Subramaniyan Sugitharajah, a part-time reporter for Sudar Oli, was killed after reporting on the January 2 killing of five Tamil students.

UNI

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