Tamil journalists wrote to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Parliamentary Reform and Mass Media calling for support in developing Tamil journalism, which has suffered from decades of conflict, in order to establish “reconciliation and good governance”.

The journalists and former students from the Media Resources and Training Centre of the University of Jaffna, wrote to Sri Lankan minister Kajantha Karunathileke, stating that media training was hindered “due to the oppressions unleashed on the media sector during the period of the former regime and the crisis situation that prevailed in the North”.

The North-East has been highlighted as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists to work, with a long history of murders and censorship.

Though a new government has since come in to place, the UN Human Rights chief Zeid Al Hussein said on a visit last month that the North-East was yet to have full media freedom, noting that the fear of reprisals “has mutated but, sadly, still exists”.

The former Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott called Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decisions in the final stages of the armed conflict “tough but probably unavoidable,” in an essay published in Quadrant this week, defending his government’s close relations with Sri Lanka.

“Personal contact isn’t everything—it won’t change a nation’s fundamental interests—but it can make a big difference where interests might align,” said Mr Abbott. “Mostly, though, articulating a significant but often unacknowledged truth turned out to be a good diplomatic ice-breaker.”

He then went on to state,

“I’m sure that the Sri Lankan president was pleased that Australia didn’t join the human rights lobby against the tough but probably unavoidable actions taken to end one of the world’s most vicious civil wars”.

The United States “will support the vision of the Sri Lankan people” and work towards a free democracy on the island, said US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Atul Keshap on Monday.

Speaking at a reception aboard the US Navy's 7th fleet flag ship "Blue Ridge", which is docked in Colombo this week, Mr Keshap said he was “thrilled” at the visit and hoped “this will be the first of many to come”.

The ambassador tweeted photos of himself at the event alongside Dayan Jayatilleka, a former Sri Lankan diplomat who has denied reports of war crimes and supported former president Mahinda Rajapaksa following his removal from office last year.

The US Navy's 7th fleet flag ship "Blue Ridge" docked in Colombo on Saturday, as part of a visit designed to strengthen relations with Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan navy troops saluted the US ship as it pulled in to port, with the Chief of Staff of the US Navy's 7th fleet Vice Admiral Aucoin visiting the Commander of the Sri Lankan Navy Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne at the Naval Headquarters.

Staff Sergeant Christopher Buch, Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team Pacific (FASTPAC) Operations Chief, said the visit was “a great opportunity for our Marines to work with and interact with the Sri Lankan Marines.”

“It's going to allow us to demonstrate and share some of our tactics,” he said.

The EU has criticised the latest editorial by one of Sri Lanka's largest English-language papers, the Sunday Times, accusing it of trying to exploit the terrorist attacks in Brussels for "nationalist raging".

In a tweet, the EU delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives said it was "very disappointed", after the publication of the editorial, which accused western powers of double standards and duplicity on terrorism.

The editorial by the paper, which is seen as close to the ruling UNP, linked the ISIS attacks to the EU's suspension of GSP+ trade tariffs over Sri Lanka's human rights record, and the ban on fisheries imports.

"There was a time when Sri Lankan Intelligence had a thing or two to learn from the West. It is now time, for the West to swallow their pride and learn a trick or two from here," the editorial said.