Journalist Shashi Punniyamoorthy who covered the protest against president held in batticaloa was questioned for two ours by the police and a statement was recorded and issued court order pic.twitter.com/dcbSllB9rk
— Shashi punniyamoorthy (@shashitamil) October 28, 2023
Two Tamil journalists were questioned by Sri Lankan police for over two hours today over their coverage of a protest in Batticaloa earlier this month.
On October 8, the two Batticaloa based journalists, Punniyamoorthy Sasikaran and V Krisnakumar, attended and covered a demonstration by Tamils who were protesting against the land grabs by Sinhala settlers in Madhavanai and Mayilathamadu. The protesters were marching towards Chenkaldy Central College, where Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremasinghe was attending an event, but were brutally assaulted by Sri Lankan police.
In their coverage of the protest, the journalists highlighted that the police officers attacked the peaceful protesters. One video by Sasikaran shows Sri Lankan police officers attacking the leader of the Amparai families of the disappeared association:
Sri Lankan male police attack leader of missing relatives pic.twitter.com/Ex1ICWE1wE
— Shashi punniyamoorthy (@shashitamil) October 8, 2023
Sasikaran has previously been subjected to harassment by Sri Lankan police for his work. In August 2021, Sasikaran was questioned for two hours by the police for allegedly organising an event in January 2021, commemorating the deaths of Indian fishermen who died at sea in 2020.
Tamil journalists have been persecuted disproportionately for reporting on human rights abuses, militarisation and corruption. Despite several attacks and killings of Tamil journalists, Sri Lanka has failed to investigate and effectively prosecute those responsible.
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