Journalists outside Colombo are at greatest risk
Journalists outside Colombo are at greatest risk, IFJ Director says
“Journalists outside Colombo are at greatest risk as violence escalates. They have less security and are more vulnerable to violence from all sides. On top of this they receive less support, resources and pay from their employers,” said Jacqueline Park, Director, Asia-Pacific, International Federation of Journalists when speaking at the Public Service Journalism Awards in Colombo recently.
During the past two years twelve media personnel have been killed in Sri Lanka, with the Uthayan newspaper published in the Northern Province from Jaffna paying the highest price in terms of human life: five members of its staff have lost their lives in the service of journalism and the freedom of expression.
Past week’s news reports say that a proof-reader of Uthayan Tamil daily was abducted on 16th Nov morning on his way home after night duty at Uthayan office, his parents complained at Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office. Also, a staffer of Thinakkural daily in Jaffna had been reported missing recently in Eazhaalai area.
A recently released report of a fact-finding mission by the IFJ, the International Press Institute and the Free Media Movement concerning the Eastern Province stresses that journalists there also work in unsafe conditions, have weak job security, restrictions on their movements and suffer extreme ethnic prejudice and partisan tensions.
Reports also indicate that many journalists express their concern that Sri Lanka’s wider national public is being kept in the dark about vital issues in the provinces. Many journalists fear that freedom of thought and expression does not exist and human rights in general are widely abused.
“Rights give journalists objective criteria by which to judge the performance of governments and those who hold power in society,” emphasized Jacqueline Park at the Public Service Journalism Awards ceremony held at the Gall Face Hotel in Colombo on Nov 16th.
She added that without the solidarity being achieved and strengthened among journaists with the sigining of the media charter in 2005 supported by IFJ and events such as the Provincial Journalists Awards Recogntion, “these times could be much darker.”
Good journalism, ensuring that ordinary people get the information they need to plan and live their lives with knowledge and awareness is what the Public Journalism Awards is promoting according to Jacqueline Park.
Acknowledging “we still have a long way to go in implementing and entrenching the principles of public service journalism across all media in Sri Lanka”, Jacqueline Park, the Asia-Pacific Director said IFJ is joining with the journalists organizations to launch the Human Rights journalism prize for the whole media community in 2008, supported by the European Commission.
