Attorney General's words about protecting journalists empty unless he backs them up with action

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka welcomes the offer made by the Sri Lankan Attorney General, Mohan Peiris, to provide protection for exiled journalists if they return to the island but urges him to take immediate steps to prove he is serious about media freedom.

Inviting exiled journalists back home, the Attorney General told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that there must be assurances on the part of the government that those who return won’t come to any harm.  He was also quoted as saying that it was not useful to have journalists staying away from the country and ‘attacking the government.’ Discussing the issue of exiled journalists while meeting a CPJ delegation in

  Colombo on Wednesday 10th March he said  “They must come back and work with us and help set up the structures so that we can work together and we can respect each other.”  

Over seventy Sri Lankan media workers fled Sri Lanka during the Mahinda Rajapaksa period of government due to intimidation and death threats.  They were unable to work in Sri Lanka after being denounced as  people who “attack the government”.  It is interesting to note the Attorney General now accepts that it is the responsibility of the government to provide protection to these journalists in future; is he also suggesting it was the government threatened the journalists in the first place? 

As an initial step to provide assurances to exiled journalists who wish to return, JDS calls upon the Attorney General  to prove his good intentions by disclosing the whereabouts of  Prageeth Ekneligoda who has been missing since the 24th of January and by advising the courts to repeal the 20 year jail sentence given to J.S.Tissainayagam under anti-terrorist laws. In addition, we would like the Attorney General to expedite investigations into the many unsolved crimes against media workers (listed below) during the Mahinda Rajapaksa period of rule and bring those responsible to book.

Unless the government takes steps to allay the fears of journalists working in Sri Lanka and ends the culture of impunity, the Attorney General's words will be another empty promise and the return of exiled journalists who love their country still a distant dream.