Colombo, Jun 25 (IPS) - The overhead projector
cast a ghastly glow on the larger- than-life
picture of Darmarathnam Sivaram, the Sri Lankan
Tamil journalist abducted and killed in April
2005.

Colleagues had gathered for his commemorative
lecture and the ghostly atmosphere fit right into
place. "On the day we remember Siva, his website
has been blocked by authorities here," Sunanda
Deshapriya, the convener of the Free Media
Movement (FMM), wondered aloud just before the
lecture.

Two days before the lecture, the popular website
tamilnet (www.tamilnet.com) was rendered
inaccessible from Sri Lankan servers.

The FMM, the foremost media group in this South
Asian nation, charged that the government was
behind the move that it called cyber terrorism.
Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa
denied any government involvement, but none of
the local Internet service providers could give a
clear answer to why the site was blocked.

Despite the perception that it slants toward the
Tamil Tigers, the rebels that have for decades
been fighting for a Tamil homeland, the website
is widely accessed in Sri Lanka.

The blocking of the site, though, appeared to be
a minor distraction compared to events that
followed.

Nadesapillai Vidyatharan, editor of the Tamil
daily ’Sudar Oli’, complained that he feared for
his life after unknown persons had come looking
for him at his new residence in downtown Colombo,
the capital.

"We had written an editorial criticising the
recent eviction of Tamils from Colombo and
supporting court action against the move. Maybe
that was the cause," he later said.

Vincent Jeyam, a Tamil journalist working in the
volatile Jaffna Peninsula in the north, had to
flee to Colombo after he received death threats
via mobile text messaging. He had acted as the
local guide for an international media monitoring
team that toured Jaffna, just before the threat
came.

The mission’s findings were bleak but not
surprising. "Pressures on the media have
multiplied over the recent months with increasing
fears for the safety of journalists, especially
those operating in the embattled North and East.
In Jaffna peninsula, dozens of journalists have
been forced to stop working for fear of their
safety,“it said.”Jaffna is one of the most dangerous places in
the world to be a journalist," Jacqueline Park of
the International Federation of Journalists
remarked.

IFJ, together with International Media Support,
International Press Institute, Reporters Without
Borders and the South Asia Media Commission,
formed the mission that had also published a
report on the Sri Lankan press in October, titled
’Struggle for Survival’.

During the visit by the mission, government
authorities had nevertheless pledged to enhance
the climate for media freedom.

"In October, we received a commitment from the
Government that cases of murdered media workers
would be properly investigated with the intention
of clearly demonstrating that there is no
impunity. However, we saw little to demonstrate
that action has been taken," the mission said at
the conclusion of its mission.

Since December 2005, 11 media workers have been
killed and none of the perpetrators have been
found guilty. The mission also blamed the Tamil
Tigers and other armed groups for stifling media
freedom, but the onus fell on the government.

Journalists and activists have long felt that the
environment for independent reporting was
declining as ethnic violence once again increased
from December 2005. "On either side of this war,
we see those in power pressuring the media to
fall in line with them. It is the us-and-them
mentality — legitimate dissent is made to appear
traitorous," Deshapriya told IPS.

The FMM, along with several other organisations,
has been in dialogue with the government to push
for change, but remains pessimistic about a quick
recovery.

During the week when Vidyatharan and Jeyam came
under threat, they met with Yapa and other
officials from the Ministry of Media. "The
government is defending its actions. It does not
acknowledge that there is something terribly
wrong. The last time also we had officials
defending that there was press freedom in the
country, but no one could answer why Tamilnet
remained blocked," Poddala Jayantha of the
Working Journalists Association said in an
interview.

The international mission came up with the same
findings. "The increasing hostility of the
authorities toward the media and the willingness
of individual ministers to verbally attack
journalists for their perceived failings are
encouraging a climate of self-censorship, which
is damaging the free flow of information," it
said.

Observers see the menacing attitude toward the
media as part of the changing political climate
since violence reared its head. Despite a
Norwegian-brokered, five-year-old ceasefire, in
the last 18 months more than 4,500 have died in
the fighting, including at least 1,500 civilians,
according to the truce monitoring group, the Sri
Lanka Monitoring Mission.

With government forces and Tamil Tigers now
engaged in full frontal confrontations, access to
conflict areas have been severely restricted not
only to journalists, but members of the
monitoring staff and relief agencies as well. The
monitoring mission only secured access to
Sampoor, close to the eastern harbour town of
Trincomalee, in early June after a six- month
wait. Government forces had wrested control of
the coastal town in late 2006.

"The pressure on the media is part of a wider
psychological culture where objective reporting
has to be subject to the political or military
agenda of those in power,“Deshapriya explained.”The significant erosion of media freedom
contributes to and is a result of the marked
deterioration of human rights in Sri Lanka
today," said Sanjana Hattotuwa, author of a
recent report by the Colombo-based think tank,
the Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Hattotuwa said that all parties in the conflict
were blatantly abusing civic rights. "The LTTE
(Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the formal
name of the Tigers), the Karuna faction (led by a
breakaway Tiger leader) and distressingly, the
Government itself, are serious violators of media
rights and have all repeatedly and severely
undermined media freedom.“”The situation is getting worse and now that the
Government’s censorship of media extends to the
web, it shows no signs of improvement in the near
future," Hattotuwa said.