The International Press Institute (IPI) along with eight other groups – all of them members of the Press Freedom Mission to Sri Lanka – call on President Mahinda Rajapaksa to redress the perilous media environment in Sri Lanka by combating impunity, releasing imprisoned journalists, introducing legal reforms to safeguard media freedom, and ensuring journalists’ safety with full respect for freedom of expression and movement, among other issues.

“Years of conflict in Sri Lanka have placed enormous pressure on the media,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “Numerous journalists have lost their lives, while others have been kidnapped and beaten for expressing their opinions about the fighting. These crimes must be prosecuted if the peace process is to be successful and if Sri Lanka is to regain the reputation of a country where democracy and the rule of law are once again its guiding principles.”

The members of the Press Freedom Mission also called on President Rajapaksa’s government to release the initial results of the investigation into the murder of The Sunday Leader‘s editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, by the end of 2009. Wickrematunge was one of the most persistent and authoritative critics of both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). He was shot dead by unknown gunmen on the morning of 8 January 2009.