There was nothing unusual about the two police officers watching some protesting journalists in Colombo last week. But beneath the façade, the journalists were nervous and sensed that they were under threat. They were protesting against the use of emergency laws to harass colleagues working for the Tamil language press. Highlighting the confrontational mood was a complaint lodged with the country’s police chief, last Wednesday, by the editor of a leading newspaper, Lasantha Wikramatunge, that he had been intimidated by President Mahinda Rajapakse. Relations between the media and the government have been worsening after December 4 when government troops in the Tamil-dominated north and east began to come under increased attacks by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Since then, over 75 securitymen have been killed, bringing a truce entered into between the LTTE and the government in February 2002 to the brink.

Following the electoral victory in November of Rajapakse, who is allied to vocally pro-Sinhala groups, there have been fears of a revival of the civil war and LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has warned of a return to arms if the new government does not come up with a power devolution package. The military has intensified security arrangements in Jaffna. The grouse of the media is that journalists working for the Tamil media are being singled out.

Vincent Jeyan, Jaffna-based correspondent of the Thinakaran newspaper said he was assaulted by army personnel while covering a protest march organised by the Jaffna University. The motorcycle of Ratnam Dayaparam, reporter for Thinakkural, the Jaffna provincial edition of a national newspaper, was also damaged. In Jaffna, Tamil newspaper offices have been searched and Tamil journalists detained.

The defence ministry insists that there has been no systematic targeting of Tamil journalists. Jayawardene said instructions have been issued to recognise government’s media accreditation.

Part of the military’s jumpiness stems from the nature of the attacks. To complicate matters a civilian organisation has claimed responsibility for some attacks. During the weekend, the Tamil Resurgence Force announced that it would soon begin targeting smaller military camps in Jaffna. Journalists see the overall trend to disregard their role as negative and are demanding a lifting of censorship.

Blanket censorship is nothing new on the island, the last episode being in 1999 when the military and the LTTE were engaged in weeks of fierce battles around Elephant pass, just south of Jaffna. “It does not matter which language they work in, the press should not be prevented from carrying out official work. We have seen in the past month incidents where Tamil journalists were assaulted, newspaper offices searched and the military not respecting official accreditation,” Sunanda Deshapriya, spokesperson for the country’s main media rights group, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said. The FMM has written to defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse seeking an urgent meeting to discuss the situation. Editors and leading journalists from the Tamil media have already had a meeting with defence authorities, and have been promised action. — IPS