Over a hundred journalists and media workers based in Colombo staged a demonstration on Friday, calling for justice for murdered Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram.

Members of the Working Journalists Association, Tamil Media Alliance, Free Media Movement, Muslim Media Forum and the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union took part in the protest alongside other trade unions.

Speaking to AP Media rights activist Lasantha Ruhunage said the Sri Lankan government must do more to punish those responsible for attacks on journalists.

“More than compensation, the attacks on journalists, media workers and media institutions should be properly investigated and those responsible for the attacks should be punished, in order to ensure justice to the media community," he said.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe lashed out at the island’s media institutions on Saturday, accusing them of attempting to revive the LTTE.

Addressing the 20th anniversary of the Muslim Media Forum, ColomboPage reported Mr Wickremesinghe as stating the “biggest threat to media freedom in Sri Lanka is media itself” during a speech in which he pulled out copies of Sri Lankan newspapers The Island and Divayina to criticise them.

British Tamil school children are outperforming their peers who have registered English as their first language in reading, writing and mathematics, reports The Express.

Looking at exam results from the previous year for children aged 10 and 11, the Express reported that children who reported Chinese and Tamil as their mother tongue outperformed children whose first language is English in all tests.

Remarks made by US Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Samantha Power, calling Sri Lanka a "global champion for human rights" have come under fire.

Writing in The Diplomat, commentator Taylor Dibbert said the Obama administration's rhetoric "continues to be wildly out of step with reality".

"Sri Lanka watchers will notice that instead of the United States clearly calling for accountability for wartime abuses (a hugely controversial issue in post-war Sri Lanka), the language seems to have shifted to 'accountable democracy.' This is something to watch going forward. Is Washington still genuinely pushing for wartime accountability?" he wrote.

Highlighting the recent increase in abductions, Mr Dibbert further said,

"Global champion of human rights and accountability? That’s quite an assertion.

Officials from the French navy said that it was time to start a "solid" partnership with Sri Lanka, the Daily Mirror reported.

“This is a good time to start the partnership between our two nations,” Captain Laurent Machard De Gramont, the Commanding Officer of the French Naval Ship ‘Aconit’, which arrived in Colombo on Friday, said. 

Tamil National Alliance leader R Sampanthan challenged the Sri Lanka state to hold a referendum in the North-East to decide on whether the Tamil people wanted a power sharing mechanism on the island.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror in a wide ranging interview, the TNA leader was questioned on whether proposals for federalism had the backing of the Tamil people of the North-East.

“People want genuine power sharing,” said Mr Sampanthan. “Have a referendum in the North and the East and decide.”