A recent incident of a cop physically assaulting a Jaffna-based journalist, causing injury, has raised concern over press freedom in the war-affected region.
Following a tip off on Tuesday, about a petrol bomb explosion in Kopay, about 4 km from the Jaffna city centre, local broadcast journalist Nadarajah Kugaraj rushed to the spot with his camera. As Mr. Kugaraj positioned his camera to begin filming near the area — where a petrol bomb had exploded, gutting a van and two motorcycles — a policeman walked up to him and asked him not to film.
Full moon day
“The police officer was in civil costume as it was poya day [full moon days are public holidays in Sri Lanka]. I was some 30-40 metres away from the spot where the vehicles were gutted. I did not enter the actual scene of crime,” he told The Hindu . However, as he tried to explain that he was only doing his job, the policeman pushed his camera and punched his face, causing a bleeding injury in his mouth.
“I spoke to my editor and then rushed to the hospital,” said Mr. Kugaraj, an employee of the privately-owned DAN TV.
Following Mr. Kugaraj’s complaint, the policeman who assaulted him was arrested and released on bail by the magistrate court on Wednesday.
When contacted, senior DIG Roshan Fernando said based on the department’s investigation of the incident, appropriate action will be taken on the policeman.
“We do not tolerate such actions from policemen. The law is for everybody, you just cannot assault someone like that,” he told The Hindu . Just like the police, journalists too had a right to carry out their professional duties, he said.
“Strongly condemning” the attack on the journalist, Colombo-based media rights group Free Media Movement has urged authorities to immediately probe the incident. In a situation where journalists in the North and South “had not got justice for rights violations,” the organisation viewed the incident as “a major obstacle to the freedom of expression,” it said in a statement.
Dozens of journalists in Sri Lanka, including in the Tamil-majority north and east during the war years, have been killed or disappeared in the past. Last month, the media fraternity marked 10 years since the murder of prominent editor Lasantha Wickrematunge. His killing remains one of the many unresolved cases of targeted attacks on journalists in the island.
