Tamil journos stopped from meeting president to seek justice for slain colleagues

Journalists from the North and East visiting the capital by invitation of the Colombo administration had been prevented from meeting the Sri Lankan President and handing over a letter carrying their longstanding demand on justice for scores of murdered colleagues.

While Sinhala journalists were allowed to present their demands to the President, Tamil journalists were stopped by the presidential guard.

Provincial journalists from all the districts in the country were invited to Colombo to participate in a discussion at the Water’s Edge hotel with President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday (6).

Many Tamil journalists and media while expressing their strong opposition to this in the run up to the presidential election, boycott the meeting due to the failure of consecutive governments to address issues stifling media freedom, particularly the murder of their colleagues and ongoing state intimidation.

In addition, barring them from covering the president’s two recent visits to the Tamil speaking areas had offended the journalists.

However, several scribes from the north and east participated in the meeting accepting the request by officials from the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment.

When the participating Tamil journalists tried to hand over an important demand seeking affirmative action and justice for those journalists who were slain and went missing over the years, they were stopped by the President’s security saying such a letter or petition can’t be handed over to him.

Apart from being blocked from handing over the document to the President, none of the journalists from the Tamils speaking areas were even allowed to voice their views at the gathering, while several Sinhala speakers were permitted to do so.

Similarly, while Sinhala scribes were given an opportunity to hand over their demands to the President at the meeting venue, the Tamil journalists letter was stopped at the door. A tense situation prevailed as the President’s security team took hold of the letter containing a singular demand.

In their letter addressed to the President the North and East Journalists have urged to establish a special accountability mechanism to render justice for those killed or disappeared journalists.

“We believe that the appropriate move to deliver justice denied for two decades is to establish a special tribunal with judicial powers that includes international monitoring.”

Journalists from the war-affected Tamil areas in the North say they felt ‘blatantly discriminated’ when obstructed under the guise of security. Their demand was just for accountability for journalists who were either killed or made to disappear. In most of the cases security forces or state sponsored paramilitaries were suspect.

Their letter stopped at the entrance also recalled the President is already aware of the number of journalists killed, abducted or forcefully disappeared.

“On International Human Rights Day 2015, the Journalists Forums handed over to you - the prime minister of Good Governance (Yahapalanaya) at the time - a list of journalists who were victims of assassinations and enforced disappearances between 2004 and 2010. You informed the audience that the list contains details of 44 journalists.”
An overwhelming majority of victims on that list compiled by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) are Tamils. Tamil journalists highlight that media freedom cannot be ensured in the country without accountability and justice for their fallen colleagues.

Local Tamil journalists were also not allowed to cover the visit of President Ranil Wickremesinghe when he visited the Northern Province recently. All the information published in the media was from handouts shared by the President’s Media Division. Tamil journalists say they feel quite marginalized and humiliated even while discharging their regular day-to-day newsgathering duties in their own homeland.

The visiting Tamil journalists were heavily disappointed by being marginalised in the North followed by snubbing in Colombo even after being invited.

However, the Tamil journalists who were compelled to hand over the letter to his security staff suggested the President reply to them and make it public before he files his nomination papers for the ensuing presidential election.

The closing date for nominations is 15 August 2024. Ranil Wickremesinghe had already placed his deposit to contest the election due to be held on 21 September.

In the letter containing their demands to the president the journalists from North and East have pointed out that the hurriedly convened journalists gathering was aimed at electoral advantage.

“We believe that your invitation, as the head of a government that obstructed local journalists from covering your recent visits to the north last week and the end of May, is aimed at influencing the election campaign.”
The letter to the president blocked by his security detail and the list of murdered and abducted journalists between 2004 and 2010 is published below.

http://www.jdslanka.org/index.php/killed-media-workers