Reporters Sans Frontières

PROTEST LETTER

Two journalists, including the editor of Tamilnet stabbed
SRI LANKA [27 December 2001]: In a letter addressed to the Sri Lankan Interior Minister, John Amaratunga, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF - Reporters without Borders) showed its indignation against the murder attempt perpetrated against Dharmaratnam Sivaram, editor of the Tamilnet news web site. RSF has requested the minister to do all in his power to identify and punish the authors of this cowardly attack. “While the idea of a truce is becoming vital in your country, the Tamil journalists should also be able to carry out their work in all security”, declared Robert Ménard, secretary general of the organization. RSF reminded them that the previous government was partly responsible in the incident as the public press had, in June 2001, accused Sivaram of being an LTTE “spy”. At that time RSF had adamantly “protested” and was “worried over the accusations that seriously endangered” the journalists life.

According to information gathered by RSF, in the evening of the 26th of December, 2001, unidentified men stabbed and beat Dharmaratnam Sivaram, editor of the Tamilnet news site as well as M. Wijetharan, a journalist working for the independent Tamil language daily, Thinakathir (The Light of Day) in Batticaloa (eastern Sri Lanka). Sivaram was writing his last article for the next edition of the Tamilnet when five men armed with clubs and knives stormed the premises of Thinakathir which is published in Batticaloa. The attackers turned towards the journalist and began beating him on the head. Before leaving the premises, they also attacked M. Wijetharan and ransacked the offices belonging to the newspaper. The police arrived a few minutes after their escape. Sivaram was transferred to a hospital in town. The injury he received to his head required six stitches. A few hours later, the police announced that they had arrested three suspects but revealed neither their identity nor the motives behind the attack.

Tamilnet is the most widely known news site that deals with the political and military situation and human rights issues in areas ravaged by the war between the army and the LTTE.

On the 17th of June, 2001, the Tamil language daily Thinakaran, the Sinhala language daily Divaina and the English language Daily News (printed by a government owned press group, Lake House) claimed that Sivaram and Vasantharaja had been cited on a list in the online magazine, The Global Spy Magazine, alleging that they were LTTE spies or sympathisers. The front page article in Thinakaran, which also bore Sivaram’s photograph, alleged that the editor was involved in the murder for treason of two men by the LTTE. On the following day, two men who appeared to be armed attempted to enter the Colombo home of Sivaram where the editor avoids staying for fear of his safety. At the end of June, the journalist moved to Batticaloa (a Tamil majority city).

In October 2000, Nimalarajan, a Jaffna based Tamil journalist and BBC collaborator was assassinated in his home. One month following the incident, a government minister and president of a Tamil party justified the murder by claiming that the journalist had links to the LTTE. Fourteen months after the murder, no one has yet been arrested in connection to the journalist murder.