Her Excellency Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
President
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo
Sri Lanka
Vienna, 20 January 2000
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, is deeply concerned about the increasingly hostile climate for independent journalists working in Sri Lanka.
In an unprecedented attack on the media during a three-hour interview on state television and radio on January 3, you accused the entire independent media of “ganging up” on you, saying you would no longer tolerate such criticism and threatening to take every action possible against independent media owners and editors short of killing them.
These remarks were preceded by a concerted hate campaign against the independent media by senior ministers and other public officials, and have subsequently triggered allegations in the state-owned media that two senior editors of independent newspapers – Lasantha Wickramatunga of the Sunday Leader and Victor Ivan of Ravaya – were involved in a conspiracy engineered by the opposition United National Party (UNP), the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the independent media to overthrow the president and government.
We fear that your remarks and the published accusations against the two newspaper editors, which remain unsubstantiated, are an indication that your government is using the December 18, 1999, assassination attempt on your life as a pretext for cracking down on critical media and for possibly introducing new laws further restricting freedom of expression in Sri Lanka.
IPI condemns these recent attacks on the media and urges you to do everything in your power to ensure that independent journalists are allowed to exercise their profession without fear of harassment or attack. We further urge you to initiate the legal reforms necessary for ensuring the rights to free expression and access to information, which are fundamental to a democratic society.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
