COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan journalist was recovering in hospital Tuesday after being beaten up near the capital Colombo as a rights group expressed renewed concern for the safety of the island's media.

Poddala Jayantha, secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association, was abducted near his home and severely attacked with sticks before being dumped in a suburb of Colombo, his colleagues said.

He had been hit on his head and legs, Colombo National hospital director Hector Weerasinghe said.

"He is conscious and is out of danger," doctor Weerasinghe said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but colleagues said Jayantha's media activism had been criticised by state authorities in recent weeks.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the attack highlighted that Sri Lanka's independent media was still a target, despite the end of the war with Tamil Tiger rebels last month.

"The attack on Poddala Jayantha is part of a trend," said Bob Dietz, the CPJ's Asia programme coordinator.

"These attacks are a chilling reminder that journalists remain under attack in Sri Lanka even after the end of the government's battle with Tamil separatists," he said in a statement.

The CPJ called for a thorough and immediate investigation into the latest assault.

The attack on Jayantha was the second physical attack against a journalist since leading anti-establishment editor Lasantha Wickrematunga was shot dead near the capital on January 8.

Wickrematunga had been critical of the government's military campaign against the Tamil Tigers, which also caused widespread international alarm because of heavy civilian casualties.

While Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were condemned for using tens of thousands of Tamil civilians as a human shield, the island's hawkish government has been accused of indiscriminate shelling of rebel-held areas.

The last territory held by the LTTE fell into government hands on May 18, with rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran killed by government troops.

State media reports in recent weeks have accused unnamed journalists of colluding with Tamil Tiger rebels, who were fighting for an independent Tamil homeland on the Sinhalese-majority island.

In January, the government told parliament that nine journalists had been killed and another 27 assaulted over the past three years, while independent activists say more than a dozen journalists have been killed.