NORMALISING THE EXCEPTION: THE STATE OF EMERGENCY IN PEACETIME
In response to a call by the Opposition and civil society to lift the state of emergency and to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in consequence of the end of…
Search Results for: freedom of expression
THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY, JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY IN SRI LANKA
This year marks the twentieth death anniversary of Rajini Thiranagama, doctor, lecturer, feminist and human rights defender, and the first death anniversary of human rights lawyer and political activist Maheshwari Velauthan. The…
Interview with Udaya Gammanpila, Legal Advisor, JHU
I interviewed Udaya Gammanpila, the Legal Advisor to the Jathika Hala Urumaya (JHU) and erstwhile Chairman of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA). Udaya is now a candidate from the Colombo District for…
Writers Under Siege
invited renowed and award winning Sri Lankan poets, novellists and other writers to respond creatively to the overarching violence, impunity and the vicious clampdown on the freedom of expression in Sri Lanka…
Responding to criticism on human rights: A case of ante-natal stress disorder?
My critique of the Ministry of Human Right’s report on its preparations on a future National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) has drawn the kind of contumacious response from one ‘Trigger Happy’…
Attacks on the Media, Military Successes and Political Settlement: The Stuff on Our Plates
End of January 2009. The political situation in Sri Lanka has seen considerable developments through 2008 and especially during the month of January 2009. The main focus today is the war against…
The murder of Lasantha Wickremetunge and Sri Lanka’s future
Watch reactions to Lasantha’s murder in Sinhala here. The Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader and one of Sri Lanka’s best known journalists Lasantha Wickremetunge was murdered this morning en route…
Hands off my TV, please!
The Minister of Mass Media and Information, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, in Gazette Extraordinary dated 10th October, reveals the overarching magic that is the Private Television Broadcasting Station Regulations of 2007. Section 13(e),…
The attack against Namal and the culture of impunity
We reproduce in full a statement by the Free Media Movement on the attacks against journalists in Sri Lanka. Namal Perera, the most recent victim of an abduction attempt, was a former…
The Sri Lankan Voter
Most of our politicians are sanctimonious, bigoted, corrupt thugs; they are parasites sucking the blood out of our society. And yet I don’t blame them. I don’t like them, but I don’t…
Sri Lankan journalists: An extinct and unprotected species
By Satheesan Kumaaran  While the freedom of the press is a precious ingredient of a vibrant democracy, in most autocracies claiming to be democracies, journalists are casualties of the various conflicts…
From the tiger’s den to an open prison
Last year, I had helped a boy from Killinochi who was arrested in Pettah and kept in inhumane conditions, worse than a caged animal, in Welikada Prison. Treatment that should not be…
Fear: A Personal Experience in Sri Lanka
By Benita Sumita “Beware of suspicious looking objects” – this is a commonly heard public announcement these days in airports, markets and metro stations from New Delhi to London to downtown Chicago.…
Militarizing the Media Mahagedera?
The news that a retired SLA General is considered as chairperson of RÅ«paváhini (SLRC) comes as a terrifying antidote to the remaining freedom of expression in the decomposing democracy in Sri Lanka.…
Where is the democracy in the UNP?
R.M.B. Senanayake The attempt to muzzle Dayasiri Jayasekera MP by the UNP leadership is another manifestation of the anti-democratic character of the UNP. Some, who crossed over from the UNP earlier, alleged…
