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Sri Lanka lifts censorship partially |
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September 10, 2000
COLOMBO (AP) - The Committee to Protect Censorship, a U.S.-based media watchdog group, on Saturday welcomed the Sri Lankan government's decision to ease censorship restrictions, but expressed regret that Tamil separatist war-related news was still under censorship rules. "We do not think that censorship is ever an appropriate means to handle a national crisis, but we are particularly concerned about the implications of having a censored press during the run-up to the October 10 parliamentary elections," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper in a letter to President Chandrika Kumaratunga. A copy of the letter was made available to The Associated Press in Colombo. Local journalists have been subject to various restrictions for more than two years, but the emergency regulations issued this May, and subsequently amended, gave the government additional power to arrest journalists, seize their property, block the distribution of newspapers, and shut down printing presses on broadly defined grounds of "national security," the group said. There was widespread demand that censorship rules be either withdrawn or eased ahead of the elections. On Friday, the government temporarily lifted parts of its tough censorship regulations but retained the ban on reporting military operations. Restrictions remain on news about military operations, deployment of troops and comments on the performance of the security forces in the country's war, said Chief Government Spokesman and Censor Ariya Rubasinghe. The government imposed the censorship in May following military reversals in the northern Jaffna Peninsula. Tamil Tiger rebels there overran several army camps in a bid to regain their former capital, Jaffna. The rebels have been fighting Sri Lankan forces for 17 years to carve out a separate homeland for the country's 3.2 million Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east. More than 62,400 people have been killed. Local journalists say few political and economic stories can be written without alluding to war that has sapped the country's resources. |