Tamil Media Group protests Uthayan attack
The Tamil Media Group held a protest march in Kilinochchi to protest the attack on the Uthayan Press Office. The following press release addressing the international community was handed to the Government Agent, T Rasanayagam, by the Secretary of the Tamil Media Group, Vivekanandan.
Excerpts from the Press Release:
On the attack on Uthayan Press Office that killed two employees We, the members of the Tamil Media Group, write to bring to the attention of the international community the following issues relating to the threats we are facing to our democratic right for free media. For several decades now, the Sri Lankan state has undemocratically denied media freedom. Journalists, in particular Tamil journalists, had to face multifaceted threats. It is a tragedy that the international community has ignored this threat faced by the Tamil journalists. On Tuesday, 2nd May 2006, evening around 7.00 pm, five gunmen in black entered the Uthayan Press Office in Jaffna through the back door, and searched for the daily’s editors. When they could not find the editors they randomly sprayed bullets into the office killing two employees, wounding three more and destroying several computers and other press equipment. One of the editor’s of the Uthayan daily has pointed to the culprits behind this attack. The Sri Lankan President, who contacted the editor, within fifteen minutes of the attack, did not care to find out the details of the attack from the editor. Yet next day at the gathering in Colombo to celebrate the international day for the freedom of media, he claimed that the LTTE is behind this attack. When the Uthayan editor at the gathering challenged this, the President managed the situation by saying that he will investigate it. We know how the GoSL has handled the investigations into the murders of other Tamil journalists, from Nimalrajan to Sivaram (Tharaki). We also know that the four students arrested by the armed forces for the Uthayan attack are innocent Tamils. This practice of manufacturing criminals out of innocent people is also not new to the GoSL system. It has happened many times in the past. We believe, in order to protect the Tamil media from the dangers it is facing, the international community has a moral responsibility to condemn the GoSL for its brutal actions against the Tamil media.
04 May 2006
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Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
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