H. E. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
President of Sri Lanka
Colombo
Sri Lanka

Vienna, 13 August 1996

The International Press Institute (IPI) is most concerned about the latest threat to press freedom in Sri Lanka.

We are informed that, according to the lead story of the Monday, 5 August issue of the Daily News, Your Excellency has warned that “newspapers which persist in publishing irresponsible and false material detrimental to the war effort and to the Security Forces will have to be closed down.”

Your Excellency singled out two articles, published over a year ago in dailies belonging to the Upali press group, the English-language The Island and the Sinhalese-language Divaina respectively, as examples of “mis-reporting.” However, we understand that both articles, which reported on the war between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), had been previously submitted to government censors and in no way revealed the government’s anti-war strategy.

IPI is concerned that the People’s Alliance (PA) government is failing to meet its campaign pledge to uphold press freedom in Sri Lanka. The media is facing increasing pressure on several sides, with government threats at the start of last year gradually giving way to police raids, criminal proceedings against journalists, and pre-publication censorship of news about the civil war.

IPI, a global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 85 countries, therefore appeals to Your Excellency to uphold the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director