Tom Hughes of International Media Support groups during a press conference in Colombo

Tom Hughes of International Media Support groups during a press conference in Colombo. International media rights activists described Sri Lanka as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists due to a worsening climate of violence and censorship.

Sri Lanka slammed over press rights

International media rights activists described Sri Lanka as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists due to a worsening climate of violence and censorship.

Killings and attacks against journalists remained unsolved leading to fears that media freedom is being deliberately and violently suppressed through threats, abductions and attacks, a team of media freedom campaigners said.

"Since August 2005, eleven media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka. Ten of them were killed in government-controlled areas and no one has been caught so far," said Jacqui Park from the International Federation of Journalists.

"Jaffna is one of the most dangerous cities in the world to be a journalist," she said of the northern, government-controlled peninsula cut off from the rest of the country by Tamil Tiger-held territory.

"Authorities seem reluctant to investigate murders and attacks," she said at the end of a five-day visit by international press activists, who last visited the embattled island last October.

"It does not help when senior government ministers endanger lives of media workers by insulting them," said Tom Hughes from International Media Support.

"Authorities must show their bona fides by solving these murders and bringing the culprits to trial," he said, lamenting that there has been "no change" in the situation in Sri Lanka since their last visit.

The fact-finding mission also said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and para-military forces were instilling a climate of fear in media workers through threats and intimidation.

Sri Lanka is pressing for a military victory over the Tamil Tigers, and a series of tit-for-tat clashes have left heavy casualties on both sides.

Almost 5,000 people have been killed since December 2005, according to official figures, while over 1,000 people are reported to have "disappeared" in the past year.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070622/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankaunrestmediarights
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Sri Lanka under fire over Internet censorship

Media rights groups attacked Sri Lanka's government Thursday for blocking domestic access to a website favouring the Tamil Tiger rebels and for saying it would like hackers to disable the site.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Colombo should immediately unblock the Tamilnet.com website.

"Sri Lanka's Internet service providers have been blocking access to the website on the government's orders since June 15," RSF said. "The government must put a stop to this censorship and restore access to the site at once."

A local rights group, the Free Media Movement (FMM), also criticised government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella over comments in which he said he would "love" to hire hackers to pull down Tamilnet.

The FMM said Rambukwellas statement was "tantamount to government sanctioned cyber-terrorism against websites that do not toe its line."

"The FMM seeks urgent clarification from the government as to whether Minister Rambukwellas comments are indicative of official government policy to shutdown, disrupt or censor content and websites on the Internet."

But Sri Lanka's Media Minister Anura Yapa insisted his ministry had nothing to do with preventing users of Sri Lanka Telecom, the country's main Internet service provider, accessing Tamilnet.

"It is unreasonable to level charges against the government," Yapa told reporters here. "We have nothing to do with this."

Military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said the security forces had not ordered the blocking of Tamilnet either.

"Security forces have not asked the Tamilnet to be blocked," Samarasinghe said.

Despite the denials, Sri Lanka Telecom's Internet service help desk told callers that the "government has asked to block Tamilnet."

"You can access any other site, but you can't access Tamilnet," callers are being told.

The government owns just under 50 percent of Sri Lanka Telecom, which is run by NTT of Japan.

A Colombo-based editor of Tamilnet, Dharmaratnam Sivaram, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in April 2005. The killing remains unresolved.

Some Internet service providers, who have their main offices abroad, still allow access to the website.

Tamilnet is an influential source of Tamil views on the island's separatist conflict, which has claimed more than 60,000 lives in a 35-year campaign by rebels for a separate homeland for minority Tamils.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070621/tc_afp/srilankaunrestinternet_070621180049;
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Sri Lanka blocks pro-rebel website: sources

Sri Lanka Telecom, the country's largest Internet service provider, has blocked a pro-rebel website on government orders, a source at the company said.

A Sri Lanka Telecom executive, who declined to be named, said the website has been blocked for several days on the "advice" of the government.

The London-based Tamilnet.com, which publishes news and opinion about the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, confirmed its site was blocked.

"The de facto climate of self-censorship that has already plagued local media in Sri Lanka has now culminated in mischievous infringement into the freedom of global media," it said.

A spokesman for the government, which owns just under 50 percent of Sri Lanka Telecom, was not immediately available for comment.

The Sri Lanka-based Free Media Movement said it was "deeply disturbed" to learn that the website was blocked.

"This is a significant turn in the erosion of media freedom in Sri Lanka and clearly demonstrates the extent to which media is censored," the media group said in a statement.

Some Internet service providers in the country still allow access to the website, which is a influential source of Tamil views on the island's separatist conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives in 35 years.

The blockage comes as an international media rights activists were in Sri Lanka to assess the situation for the local media in the face of increased attacks and intimidation.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070620/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankaunrestmediaitcensorship
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Sri Lanka says scores of rebels killed in battle for east

The Sri Lankan army said that two months of fighting aimed at ousting Tamil Tiger rebels from jungles in the east of the island has left 197 dead, the vast majority of them guerrillas.

The island's security forces have been trying to remove pockets of rebels from the Thoppigala jungles and areas near the eastern town of Batticaloa, with strategists hoping the Tigers would then be confined to the north.

"In the operation to capture Thoppigala since April, 188 Tigers have been killed and 133 wounded," said army spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe. "Security forces suffered nine killed and 78 wounded."

No independent confirmation of the casualty figures were available, and there was no immediate comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Both sides, however, routinely inflate enemy casualty figures.

Samarasinghe said the LTTE base in the jungles near Batticaloa would be under government control "in the next few days."

"With the capture of Thoppigala we would eliminate their control over the local population and prevent the conscription of child soldiers," Samarasinghe said. "This is a big setback for the Tigers in the east."He claimed government troops had found the bodies of 30 rebels following fighting in the region Tuesday, and said clearing operations were under way to eliminate an estimated 150 rebels still holed up in the jungles.

The military statement came a day after a clash between naval craft and a flotilla of Tiger boats in the north of the island.

A defence ministry statement said the navy "suspects" about 40 rebels were killed, adding the government side suffered no casualties.

More than 60,000 people are reported to have been killed in the LTTE's separatist campaign since 1972.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/srilankaunrest;_ylt=Amgr.MpsM6o9xZRIXiomeEfuOrgF)

Three Tamil Tigers killed in Sri Lanka clash

Sri Lankan security forces killed three Tamil Tiger rebels in renewed fighting in the east of the island, the defence ministry said.

The fighting took place in an area between the coastal towns of Batticaloa and Trincomalee, where government troops are trying to clear pockets of guerrillas who escaped a major offensive earlier this year.

Security forces have stepped up operations in the east since last year, with the stated aim of isolating the Tamil Tigers to their de facto mini-state in the north.

More than 5,000 people have been killed since December 2005, when a Norweigian-arranged truce began to collapse. The conflict has claimed over 60,000 lives in the past 35 years.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070619/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankaunrest
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An internally displaced ethnic Tamil child walks in a refugee camp

An internally displaced ethnic Tamil child walks in a refugee camp in Batticaloa in this May 30, 2007 file photo. The government has resettled 60,000 people in the war-scarred eastern district of Batticaloa around 190 miles (310 km) northeast of the capital Colombo in recent weeks after driving the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels from this former rebel bastion following fierce battles and air strikes.