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Sri Lanka media firms offer reward after attack
02 Jul 2008 11:46:38 GMT
 Source: Reuters
COLOMBO, July 2 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan media owners on Wednesday offered a cash reward to catch assailants involved in an attack on a journalist, while the country's media protested against the increasing wave of violence against them.

A defence analyst attached to Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI), along with a British High Commission official, was brutally assaulted on Monday, prompting media groups to highlight the escalation in violence against journalists.

Kumar Nadesan, chairman of the SLPI and the representative of newspaper publishers, said the Publishers and Editors Guild of Sri Lanka had offered money to informants, in its first such attempt at capturing the attackers.

"The newspaper publishers and editors guild is announcing a reward of 5 million rupees ($46,430) for information leading to the apprehension and prosecution of the assailants," Nadesan said.

Sri Lanka was ranked the world's third deadliest place for journalists last year, after Iraq and Somalia, by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), a Paris-based organisation that promotes media freedom worldwide.

Media and rights groups in the capital protested against the violence by donning black arm bands on Wednesday and demanding the government bring the perpetrators to justice.

Britain's High Commissioner on Monday condemned the attack as a "despicable act", while the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday said it was deeply concerned over spate of incidents involving members of the Sri Lankan media.

President Mahinda Rajapakse's government has been accused of taking an increasingly heavy-handed approach towards critics of its military policy, both at home and abroad, after Sri Lanka's 25-year-old civil war was reignited two years ago.

In recent times, Sri Lankan journalists have suffered more assaults by unidentified gangs. Media and right groups have warned that government statements accusing critical journalists of treachery in the civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could trigger violence against the media.

Sri Lanka has intermittently censored media reports of the civil war since it began in 1983, and it has restricted access to Tamil Tiger-held areas.

Fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tigers has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January.

LITTLE ACHIEVED

Media groups said the government has failed to apprehend any of the attackers to date. This year alone, a total of 12 journalists including a defence columnist have been attacked, with one hacked to death.

Local media groups said they had no confidence in government investigations into the attacks on media workers as the state has done little to curb the violation of media freedom and attacks against journalists in the country.

"This is one of a chain of incidents happening against media freedom. We are not happy at how the investigations are being conducted," said Sunanda Deshapriya, spokesperson of Free Media Movement, the main media rights group.

Last week, 31 organisations from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas appealed to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to speak out in support of journalists in Sri Lanka who face "grave dangers" after being labelled traitors by government officials. ($1=107.68 Sri Lankan rupees) (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Anuruddha Loku Hapuarachchi, writing by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Ben Tan)


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People walk past a poster of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa as they protest against the assaults on journalists during a demonstration in Colombo July 2, 2008. Sri Lankan media owners ...


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Last updated:Wed Jul 2 11:49:42 2008