A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
(April 01, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) The continuous persecution by the Sri Lankan government of the Lanka-E-News publication reached a new stage when its editor, Bennet Rupasinghe was arrested and detained yesterday. For many months now Lanka-E-News has been under severe attack and one of its reporters, Prageeth Eknaligoda has been missing for over one year now. His family has accused the government of Sri Lanka for causing his forced disappearance.
Very recently the Lanka-E-News office was subjected to an arson attack. Previously there had been several other attacks on this web-site. According to reports it appears that the government is trying to blame the arson attack on the editors of the website itself. This method of trying to attribute attacks on media organisations to the staff of the organisations themselves is now a common feature in Sri Lanka. The attack on the Sirasa News Agency was also attributed to the staff of that agency and there were even suggestions that the assassinations and attacks on journalists were also self-inflicted. There was an attempt to attribute the earlier attacks on journalists to the opponents of the ruling regime in order to discredit the government. For example the assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunga was blamed on Sarath Fonseka who was the former army commander who led the struggle against the LTTE. Fonseka was also the opposition candidate that ran against President Rajapakse in the last presidential election. One of his colleagues was arrested and detained for several months under this charge before being finally released.
The attack on Lanka-E-News preceded a vicious campaign against website publications referring to their editors as traitors to the nation. It appears that the government which has been engaged in the suppression of the print media within the country for a considerable time and who has to a greater degree achieved this end is now directing its attack on the web organisations.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has for a long period of time pointed out that the manipulation of the criminal justice process for political purposes is becoming a marked feature in the persecution of those perceived to be opponents of the government. The manipulation of the criminal justice process has reached the point where the confidence of the public in this process has greatly diminished.
The AHRC calls for the end to the persecution of the management and staff of Lanka-E-News and the vicious campaign against the web-site-based newspapers. Such attacks are attacks, not only on the individuals concerned but also on the rights of the Sri Lankan people who are already being deprived of the right to be informed about the public affairs of their own country.
We specifically call for the immediate release of Bennett Rupasinghe who has been subjected to several unjustified attacks on his rights as the editor of Lanka-E-News.
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