Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

Govt responsible for hate speech and physical attacks against Tamil newspaper - Tamil MP

The Sri Lankan government was responsible for a campaign of "hate speech backed up by physical attacks" against the Tamil Jaffna based newspaper, Uthayan, accused a Tamil MP.

Listing the attacks against the newspaper, the TNA MP, MA. Sumanthiran, accused the government of being responsible, pointing out that armed attacks were taking place despite the heavy militarisation present.

"The last seven years, attacks on this newspaper [Uthayan], the incidents are over 30. Three zero. I don't think any other media institution in this country has suffered this amount of attacks."

"Two of their employees were shot dead, inside the premises. Gunmen came and opened fire, three others were seriously injured. Two died. That has not been inquired into. Nor has that crime been resolved. This was some time ago."

"If one is to look at the recent incident, just this year alone, their newspaper distributor was attacked, then their distribution centre in Kilinochchi was attacked by armed personnel, and you know you can't have an armed group in Kilinochchi doing this kind of operation and getting away. The highly militarised environment in Kilinochchi... if that can happen, it can only be an act of the government."

"The latest of that was in the month of April, when their main printing press and the main printing machine was set on fire, to totally incapacitate them from printing and distributing this newspaper."

"None of this has been solved. If in Kilinochchi and in Jaffna you can have such blatant attacks carried out by armed thugs.. and them not getting caught.. that can only be an indication that these are being carried out by the agents of the government."

"In the context of all of these physical attacks on this newspaper, there is something else that goes on parallelly, and that is a vilification campaign carried out in the state media on this newspaper."

See video.

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.