Despite appeals by international organizations to drop investigations against Tamil journalists Punniyamoorthy Sasikaran and Valasingham Krishnakumar, both journalists were summoned before a Sri Lankan courts for further questioning today.
Both journalists were questioned today in the presence of Judge Dharshika Annanthurai at the Eravur Magistrate Cour, over their overage of a protest in Batticaloa in October. The protest coincided with Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremasinghe’s visit to Batticaloa.
At the time of the protest, hundreds of farmers, activists, and members of civil society groups demonstrated against the state-backed land grabbing by Sinhalese settlers. Sasikaran was reporting on the protest for IBC Tamil and Battimirror, while Krishnakumar was reporting to news outlets Maddu News and Samugam Media.
Both of them were questioned about their journalistic background, their work, and what occurred at the protest for nearly two and a half hours.They were then ordered to sign written statements of their testimony and notified that they would be named in a police criminal investigation.
“Sri Lankan authorities must immediately cease all forms of reprisal against journalists Punniyamoorthy Sasikaran and Valasingham Krishnakumar and ensure they may report freely,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi said last year. “The government must put an end to the long-standing pattern of relentless harassment targeting Tamil journalists covering human rights violations impacting their community.”
The CPJ statement said "ethnic tensions persist" on the island between the Sinhalese and Tamils, "who have experienced systematic discrimination in the country".
On November 4 last year, Sasikaran and Krishnakumar received a court order, directing them to hand over their unedited video footage of a Buddhist monk threatening to “cut Tamils into pieces,” and to provide a statement to police concerning a separate investigation into the monk.
On November 7, Sasikaran and Krishnakumar then appeared at the Batticaloa Divisional Crime Detective Bureau and provided the footage to police, who questioned them for one hour each about their coverage and which media outlets they shared their videos with, they told CPJ.
Sasikaran and Krishnakumar believe the harassment is intended to muzzle their reporting on farmers and marginalized communities. Their next court date is set for March 04.
