Dangers on Lankan journalists have eased - IFJ

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), say that dangers on journalists in Sri Lanka have eased with the end of fighting.

“The end of Sri Lanka’s war against terrorism almost two years ago has led to a decline in violence”, says the IFJ annual report, which was released in New Delhi on Tuesday to mark World Press Freedom Day, reports the BBC Sinhala Service.

But the report blamed Sri Lanka of not doing enough to investigate the violations of media rights. “The climate of impunity for violations of journalists’ rights continues,” say the IFJ

The report titled “Free Speech in Peril: Press Freedom in South Asia” also said that investigations of killings and disappearances of journalists in Sri Lanka have made little headway.”

The IFJ also say that the journalists are prevented from positively contributing to the proceedings of the LLRC. “The political leadership in Sri Lanka continues to acknowledge the imperative of national reconciliation but there have been occasions when journalists have been prevented from attending the proceedings of the commission that is the main instrumentality of the process”.

Commenting further on the value of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the IFJ comments on the language issue.

“As during the years of conflict, the cross-community dialogue remains weak, since the English and Sinhala language media are not seen to provide adequate coverage to testimonies rendered in Tamil to the commission”.