IFJ Alarmed By Reported Abduction in Sri Lanka

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is alarmed and dismayed over reports that Dammika Ganganath Dissanayake, the former chairman of the government-owned broadcaster, the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC), may have been abducted from his home near Colombo.

 

According to reports received from sources in Colombo, Dissanayake was taken away by a gang which remains unidentified, late yesterday evening. The gang reportedly arrived in a white van, stormed the residence, bound up his wife and domestic help, and took Dissanayake away.

 

The family of the missing man has filed a complaint with a local police station. The police have reportedly said that they have no information about Dissanayake’s whereabouts.

 

Dissanayake is reportedly close to Ranil Wickramasinghe, the leader of the United National Party, the main opposition grouping in Sri Lanka’s Parliament. Recent reports in a Colombo newspaper mentioned that he intended to begin work soon on a book dealing with political abductions in Sri Lanka.

 

“The IFJ recalls that Tamil newspaper editor N. Vidyatharan was snatched from a private family ceremony on February 25 in what seemed at the time to be an abduction, but which was later confirmed by the Sri Lankan police to be an arrest on charges of abetting terrorism,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said.

 

“Dissanayake’s disappearance reminds us once again that media freedom in Sri Lanka is gravely imperilled by the rapid descent into lawlessness that the Government seems disinclined to arrest and may indeed be promoting.”

 

For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0919

 

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 122 countries