US calls on SL to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law and freedom of expression

The United States calls on Sri Lanka to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law and freedom of expression by conducting thorough investigations into attacks on journalists. Speaking at the US State Department‘s daily press briefing in Washington, the Department's Acting Deputy Spokesperson, Patrick Ventrell, expressed these views.


 ''As we continue our free the press campaign we will highlight the case of Uthayan, a Tamil language newspaper in Sri Lanka. Uthayan has seen its personnel beaten, its newspaper shipments burned, its equipment destroyed and its offices set ablaze in the past month alone. The assault on a free press in Sri Lanka extends beyond Uthayan.

'' ''The BBC Tamil Language service has had its programmes about Sri Lanka and the Human Rights Council censored. Reporters have been physically assaulted and murdered in years past and a prominent political cartoonist has been missing for three years.'

' ''The United States calls on Sri Lankan authorities to demonstrate their commitment to the rule of law and freedom of expression by conducting thorough investigations, into all attacks and killings of journalists and bring the perpetrators to justice.

'' ''We urge Sri Lankan authorities to protect freedom of expression. The necessity of upholding this fundamental human right was not only a component of the UN Human Rights Council resolution in Geneva this March, but it was a central recommendation of the Sri Lankan Government's own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission," stated Acting Deputy Spokesperson a US State Department Patrick Ventrell