H.E. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
President, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo
Sri Lanka

Vienna, 16 May 2000

Your Excellency,

The International Press (IPI), the global network of editors and journalists, strongly urges you to rescind the public security regulations imposed on both the local and foreign media in Sri Lanka.

Under the new laws imposed on 4 May 2000, the Sri Lankan government has extended its already disproportionate restrictions on freedom of the press and of expression. As a consequence of these new laws, the government has the power to ban live broadcasts of all television and radio programmes, to ban newspapers and seize their means of production as well as to ban public meetings, trade union action and criticism of both yourself and the government. All of these restrictions have been enacted in the name of national security and are akin to censorship existing under conditions of war.

Your Excellency, the enactment of these swingeing restrictions is contrary to freedom of expression and are in breach of the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. Moreover, the use of censorship, as claimed by your Excellency’s government, in order to resolve the conflicts of a country in crisis merely has the effect of inflaming tensions.

In the belief of IPI, censorship of the press exposes a country to the dangers of uninformed comment, which if unchecked, serves only to fan the flames of apprehension. The suspension of objective reporting and the imposition of the government viewpoint has left Sri Lanka wide open to rumours. An example of this may be seen in the recent detention of five people for spreading rumours which “support” the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam.

Your Excellency, objective journalism is a necessity in any democracy, it allows individuals to make reasoned and informed judgements on events. Without this journalism, and with only the viewpoint of the government as a substitution, which naturally may be distrusted, individuals may turn to believing inaccurate reports and wild rumours.

IPI, therefore, calls upon you to rescind the censorship laws which were enacted on the 4 May and to restore freedom of expression to your country. IPI also urges you to allow local and foreign press free access to the Jaffna peninsula for the purposes of providing informed comment on the current crisis.

We thank you for your attention.

Johann P. Fritz
Director