IFJ Concerned About Interrogation of Journalists in Sri Lanka


The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is deeply concerned by reports that officials of the Sri Lankan Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) visited the office of the web-based news portal www.lankaenews.com on June 17 and questioned editor Sandaruwan Senadeera  and news editor Benet Rupasinghe for more than three hours.

The CID visit to the office of www.lankaenews.com was reportedly provoked by a report published in February. CID officers wanted the editors to name sources.

According to the Free Media Movement (FMM), an IFJ affiliate, the news portal was among eight media institutions named recently by Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence as being "treacherous" and "partial to terrorists".

Sandaruwan Senadeera has reportedly received threatening phone calls and hate mail for more than a year.

The IFJ is further informed that Lakshman Hulugalla, Director of the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS), complained recently of a violation of "guidelines" issued by his agency in August 2006, which require, among other things, that all news related to national security be submitted to the MCNS for scrutiny before publication or broadcast.

The IFJ endorses the FMM view that the MCNS guidelines intrude into media autonomy and amount to censorship. It also defends the right of journalists to protect their sources of information.

"The right to protect the confidentiality of sources is a cornerstone of press freedom and commonly essential for securing information of great public importance," IFJ Asia-Pacific said.

"At the same time, any complaints of alleged violations of the basic principles of quality journalism, such as respecting facts and getting all sides of a story, should be dealt with through established and independent grievance redressal processes."

The IFJ supports the five organisations representing journalists in Sri Lanka - the FMM, the Federation of Media Employee's Trade Unions (FMETU), the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association (SLWJA), the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum (SLMMF) and the Sri Lanka Tamil Journalists' Alliance (SLTJA) - in questioning the mandate of the MCNS to lay down rules of conduct for journalism.

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

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 122 countries