What is it about Freedom of Expression – the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds – that makes it a core human right?

Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, states “The freedom to speak and the freedom to write are essential preconditions for the transition towards democracy and good governance” – and though this is true, I think it comes down to something much simpler. If sharing ideas and information is forbidden then we are forced to live in a state of ignorance. Allowing civil society, allowing individuals access to independent information gives people the tools to decide for themselves. To governments shirking the responsibility of international accountability, governments determined to ensure it’s their version of history that’s written – freedom of expression is the greatest threat.

And as the wielders of this mighty responsibility, in a country where independent expression and human rights are taboo – journalists in Sri Lanka are a marked people.

34 media professionals murdered. 34 cases unsolved. 62 Sri Lankan journalists forced into exile since 2009. No investigations. No justice.

Government officials use anti-terrorism legislation to claim traitorous behaviour on the part of media professionals not willing to tow the farcical policy line. The words of Ministers vilify journalists and echo so forcefully against the independent free press they incite harassment, physical attack and hatred of media professionals. And more often than not these attacks occur in heavily government controlled areas.

While simultaneously denying it exists to foreign media, Government officials are so secure in the culture of fear and impunity they’ve created, that Ministers and even the President feel no qualms at personally threatening members of the Press. On 19 July using tactics reminiscent of an Al Pacino movie, President Rajapakse warned Sunday Leader chairman Lal Wickrematunge “if you attack me personally, I will know how to attack you personally too.”, while his brother Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse publicly bemoaned the abolition of prison sentences for press offences

Sri Lanka is considered the 4th most dangerous country for journalists. Afghanistan, Russia, Columbia and Mexico are all considered less so. And now this affront to freedom of expression has taken to the international stage.

In July of this year two Radio Netherlands Wordwide reporters travelling in Jaffna were overheard questioning locals at a restaurant. Shortly thereafter they were confronted by ten police officers, including the Chief of Police, who intimidated them into leaving. The following day they were attacked and robbed at gun point by a gang in a white van – the notorious symbol for the long arm of the state.

So how should this marked profession react? In a posthumously published article former Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge prophetically lamented, “No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces – and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. …Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories, and now especially the last.”

But not all media professionals are ready to forego their lives for the sake of their profession and can we really ask them to? Further still access to heavily restricted areas are often provided in return for self censorship – never more apparent than in Charles Haviland’s piece for the BBC that only implicitly alluded to the government’s militarization of the north and barely touched the surface of the Tamil reaction to the “bombastic monument to the government’s war victory”.

It is a treacherous line to walk; censorship with access; freedom with death. There is no signature at the end of this piece.

But foreign media and especially influential media giants have a vital role to play in ensuring the safety and freedom of media professionals in Sri Lanka. Because if not them, then who?

Please click here to support our campaign for Free Press in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Confidential

Keeping the Press Free:

A Risky Business