Paris based media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has welcomed the fall in the number of physical attacks, threats and cases of imprisonment in its year ending situation report from Sri Lanka. According to RSF at least 55 journalists and media workers fled the country during the last three years. Some have returned and recommenced their work. Others have returned for short stints to visit family. Most have remained overseas.
The inconclusive Lasantha Manilal, Wickrematunge editor of the The Sunday Leader newspaper, who was murdered while on his way to work investigation and the disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda still hang over journalists like dark clouds. Ekneligoda disappeared in January 2009 and so far his whereabouts have remained unknown.
The RSF report says that the government is not promoting full editorial freedom and attacks against journalist are still reported. Photographers covering an anti-government protest by undergraduate students were assaulted by uniformed police officers in December.
There has been a decline in the number of recorded attacks on the media, and no assassinations of journalists were reported last year.
However, the reporting climate is still far from being conducive to assertive journalism, but has improved from what it was during the final phase of the war.
With the civil war ravaged country slowly limping back to normalcy, it is expected that media would also find its foothold soon.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025