DailyMirror
Appeals to Govt. for intervention in ‘preventing thugs using rough housing as a resort’
Media organizations yesterday said they had asked President Mahinda Rajapaksa to intervene in order to arrest the deterioration of media freedom in the country. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Secretary of the Free Media Movement (FMM), Sunil Jayasekara said the organisations had come to a collective decision to ask the President to intervene as journalists were facing dangerous trends these days.
“This is a threat to the people and their right to information,” he said and added that they also planned on educating the international community about this.
President of the Editors Guild, Manik de Silva who was also present at the press conference said he hoped the President would intervene in this matter as he had in the issue with the Swiss journalist.
“We appeal to the President and to the government as it is very undemocratic and various thugs should not be allowed to use rough housing as a resort”, he said.
“Next to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka has become the second highest country where journalists have been threatened.” said President for the Sri Lankan Chapter of the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA).
He also said that he was confident that the Judiciary and the Institutions of Law and Order will act rapidly to address this issue.
The organizations which took part in the press briefing were the Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, Editors Guild of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Tamil Media Forum, Sri Lanka Muslim Media Alliance and the Sri Lankan Chapter of the South Asian Free Media Association.