Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has included the editor of the Tamil daily Uthayan in its list of “100 Information Heroes”.

The first such list, created by RSF to mark World Press Freedom Day, included a hundred journalists from around the world, for helping to promote the freedom “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”, RSF said.

Mr MV Kaanamylnathan had 50 years of “tough experience in journalism”, the rights organisation said, adding that dozens of Uthayan journalists were killed in the armed conflict in Sri Lanka.

“Five years after the official end of the conflict, Kaanamylnathan, who himself escaped an attack in 2001, and his newspaper are still making waves. Last year, a series of articles on land seizures by the Sri Lankan army was followed by a brutal attack on the paper’s offices by six masked men.” RSF said.

China's loans to Sri Lanka over the past four years total over $3,836 million, reported The Sunday Leader.

The loans are repayable over a 14 to 20 year period, at interest rates ranging from 1.53% to 6.5%, much higher than usual rates for infrastructure loans from the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank.

Most of the loans had conditions, requiring Sri Lanka to buy everything, from raw materials to machinery, from China, and to give the contracts, and sometimes even sub-contract, to firms from China, the paper said. China’s current 42 projects employ more than 1,700 Chinese workers.

China has financed key development programmes, including road construction, port development, power supply, water supply, irrigation and other infrastructure developments, and the equipment and machinery necessary for the projects.

For example, the new 25.6 km (16 mile) airport highway was built with a loan of $248.2 million from Exim Bank of China, with China Metallurgical Group Corporation as the contractor, according to Reuters,

One of the largest projects was the port in President Mahinda Rajapaksa's hometown of Hambantota, which was built with a loan of $1.3 bn from China's Exim Bank at an "exorbitant 6.3% interest", the Ceylon Today reported last November.

The paper added:

"Jobs opportunities should be given to those who are unemployed, as well as guaranteeing employment appropriate to university qualifications.

Land belonging to Tamils and Muslims in the Northern and Eastern provinces, including temples, schools, public buildings, properties, should be freed from the military's possession.

1. We will voice for the rights of Tamil workers, labourers and fisherpeople who are simultaneously facing racial discrimination and class oppression.

2. We will establish and take forward political, economic, and socio-cultural policies based on the benefit/good of the Tamil nation.

3. We will fight against the planned land grabs.

4. We will fight together to ensure an independent international investigation into the genocide of the Tamil people takes place.