Document #1090343
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
Very little information on this topic is
available in the publicly-available published sources which are
regularly consulted by the IRBDC. Please see the attached clipping
from the Far Eastern Economic Review, dated 16 October 1986,
which details the types of restrictions which are imposed upon Sri
Lankan journalists and the possible penalties. No information is
available, however, regarding trials of journalists in Sri
Lanka.
In Patricia Hyndman's Sri Lanka:
Serendipidy Under Seige, a reference is made to an incident
which occurred in 1983, namely the detention of a press
photographer during a demonstration in support of International
Women's Day. Another account of the treatment of journalists is
provided in Lament for Lanka, a book containing a series of
interviews conducted by Alison Wynne and published by The Christian
Conference of Asia. Please see the attached section entitled
"Sivanayagam" from this book. There is also a reference to the
treatment of Sri Lankan journalists in L'information dans le
monde, but this covers the period of October 1987. It is
mentioned in this source that a journalist of the daily paper
The Island was detained for four days for having written an
article critical of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF). Finally,
an article from The Toronto Star, dated 19 August 1989, is
attached which deals with the attempted assassination of Sinnadirai
Thiruchelvam, a Sri Lankan journalist who wrote articles that were
disliked by the IPKF. This last source is attached for your
information even though it does not correspond to your requested
time frame.