US urges Lanka to protect fundamental rights of journalists
Tuesday, 29 July 2014 00:10
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The US Government has strongly urged Sri Lanka to take immediate steps to ensure the protection of fundamental rights for journalists.
The US has raised concerns both with the Government of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington, the US Embassy said.
In a statement released yesterday, the US Embassy in Colombo expressed deep concern about the circumstances surrounding the cancellation of a journalism training session in Colombo last weekend, saying the incident continued a troubling pattern of impunity for those who interfere with the freedoms of speech and assembly in Sri Lanka.
“The eventual cancellation of this training, which was focused on digital security for Jaffna-based journalists and financially supported by the US government, was accompanied by a series of threats and intimidation of training participants and other journalists around the country, including threats against at least one journalist who made a statement criticising the government over the cancellation,” the US Embassy said.
The Embassy said the incident marked the third training session to be cancelled in Sri Lanka since May, including others that were disrupted by well-organised protestors threatening harm to the training participants. “Even when present, the police have not provided security for threatened journalists or taken action against the groups making the threats,” the Embassy said in a hard-hitting statement.
The US Government also separately expressed concern about threats and intimidation by security forces against journalists covering the 25 July Jaffna court proceedings related to an 11-year-old victim of sexual abuse, allegedly at the hands of Sri Lankan Navy personnel from the Karainagar Naval Base.
“These events continue a troubling pattern of impunity for those who interfere with both freedom of speech and freedom of assembly in Sri Lanka,” the Embassy statement said.
