The director of Vavuniya-based Thinapuyal newspaper, Sakthivelpillai Prakash, said that Tamil media on the island could not report freely until Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) is lifted.
Prakash, who was speaking to reporters after attending questioning at Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), described the interrogation that his wife and another editor were subjected to.
Prakash and his wife were kept from 9am until 6pm, where they were both initially questioned about their family, before interrogations moved on to the newspaper’s activities.
The Sri Lankan security forces highlighted particular articles published by the Thinapuyal, such as a recent piece on the head of the Sri Lankan army which reportedly said he was responsible for war crimes. The newspaper director responded by stating that the reports of Silva’s involvement in mass atrocities had been documented by international organisations, and came in the aftermath of the US government placing travel sanctions on the army commander.
The Sri Lankans also questioned Prakash over another article published in the aftermath of the 2019 presidential elections which included a photograph of LTTE leader V Prabhakaran. TID officers reportedly told Prakash that it was forbidden to publish any photographs of LTTE uniform or of the LTTE logo. They claimed that by publishing such photographs, and other articles on former LTTE cadres that died in the armed struggle, it was encouraging the “rebirth” of the movement.
“We are saddened to say that we cannot report freely until the Prevention of Terrorism Act is lifted,” Prakash told reporters.
