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Listening Post - Conflict coverage in Sri Lanka - 13 Feb 09
As the Sri Lankan government tightens its grip on northern strongholds long held by the Tamil Tiger rebel movement the media is being subjected to censorship, intimidation and news blackouts. The head of Sri Lankas state funded broadcaster has called on the media to restore peace and harmony. And the stakes are high. A leading editor of an opposition paper has been murdered, and international news channels find themselves threatened with expulsion from the island unless they play by the rules.
Source : AlJazeera English
By Saroj Pathirana
BBC Sinhala service
A spate of attacks on reporters, threats from unidentified groups and the murder of a leading newspaper editor are all jeopardising the future of journalism in Sri Lanka.
Many bright young students say they fear taking up journalism as a career choice in the island nation and a number of experienced journalists have already left the country because of threats to their lives.
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) group has called on the authorities to take steps to end the prevailing climate of fear caused by "government cronies increasing their pressure".
The government has also been criticised by the International Press Freedom Mission, which in a report on Wednesday condemned its "inaction and failure" to take attacks against reporters seriously.
'Challenges ahead'
The BBC's Ethirajan Anbarasan in Colombo says many journalists in Sri Lanka are understandably shocked by the recent killing of Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickramatunga.
Sri Lankan TV attack
On Friday another editor - Upali Tennakoon of the Rivira weekly - was attacked, along with his wife.
"Sri Lanka is not a place for journalists any more. This was the message I was getting again and again during my conversations with my journalist friends in the capital, Colombo," Ethirajan Anbarasan says.
A private media station, MTV-MBC, was ransacked two days before Mr Wickramatunga's murder on 8 January by a group reportedly armed with claymore mines, a weapon only available to the rebels and military forces in Sri Lanka.
Some young journalists, however, say that the recent spate of threats and attacks has inspired them to expose the truth about the war and threats to the media.
"I think it is important that we continue with the duty that was carried out by the current generation of journalists although there may be challenges ahead," says Salindri Kalpana Kurukula.
Ms Kurukula is among a group of trainee journalists who have just completed their media studies at Sri Lanka College of Journalism (SLCJ) run by the Sri Lanka Press Institute.
Editors say it is very difficult to motivate their staff to carry on with their work in the atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
Many journalists no longer wish to comment in public as a result of the prevailing mood of hostility.
Lankadissent, a pro-opposition web newspaper, closed its operations on the same day that Mr Wickramatunga was killed.
A member of its editorial team said that staff no longer wanted to put their lives at risk.
The pro-rebel TamilNet website is already banned, while a leading member of another popular web newspaper - who did not wish to be named - told the BBC that he now no longer wishes to remain in the country.
'Dangerous profession'
Amila Prabodha Gamage, another recent graduate of SLCJ, says many new journalists feel comfortable only writing light controversy-free features following the death of Mr Wickramatunga, who was a leading investigative journalist.
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SRI LANKA - "STATE TERRORISM" EXPOSED by Canadian CBC Radioby ottawazoom8,026 views
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