(August 09th, 2019/Media Release) Freedom Media Movement vehemently condemns the threat to journalist K. Prasanna by Palani Digambaram, Minister of Minister of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development, in connection to an article titled ‘Does the Indian Housing Scheme provide fund the Minister’s food?’ written by journalist K. Prasanna using Right to Information […]

07th August 2019 M. S. P. Ekneligoda No. 136/2, Suhada Mawatha, Hiripitiya, Pannipitiya. Mr. Dappula De Livera, PC Hon. Attorney General, Attorney General’s Department, Colombo 12. Request with regard to Prageeth Ekneligoda Case  Honourable Sir, Facts and evidence of the case mentioned above bearing case number B7417/10, which is being heard in the Homagama Magistrate’s Court, were filed by Homagama […]

(UCAN ) Catholics in Sri Lanka have protested after a stone was allegedly thrown at a statue of St. Sebastian at a church where more than 100 people died in the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. Police and soldiers were deployed to Katuwapitiya on Aug. 6 when about 100 protesters gathered outside St. Sebastian’s Church to demand […]

Image: Sri Lankan chief editor of the privately-owned Rivira weekly Upali Tennakoon (L) is rushed to the Colombo national hospital after he was attacked in 2009 (AFP Photo/Ishara S. KODIKARA) (AFP) Sri Lanka on Wednesday charged two army spies for a decade-old serious assault of a newspaper editor in the wake of the shock assassination of […]

By Rehab Mahamoor/August 07, 2019. Sri Lanka is no stranger to arbitrary laws that are prone to misuse. For the past 40 years, it has had the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act on the statute books, which has been used to target minorities and is one of the main drivers of human rights violations – including the suppression […]

Image: File photo, not related to this news story. Victim beaten brutally; sustains injuries to spine, stomach. Methodist Bishop says Christians will remain calm in the face of persecution. Expresses deep concerns about eroding freedom to practice faith in SL.   The Head of the Methodist Church in Sri Lanka has accused three Buddhist monks […]

06th August, 2019. Civil Society Statement in support of Reforming the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act We, the undersigned civil society organisations and individuals urge the Government of Sri Lanka to take immediate steps to reform the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA). The failure to reform the MMDA has been a long-standing issue that successive […]

After visiting Shakthika Sathkumara in prison, I sat down to write about this writer who should never have spent a single day behind bars, let alone four months, for a short story he wrote. Then I reconsidered. Self-censorship — that is the real enemy of freedom of expression and that is what governments and other […]

(4 August, 2019) The National Police Commission (NPC) decision to prevent the transfer of two senior cops in Kurunegala over their involvement in framing a Muslim doctor in a pseudo illegal sterilisation scare has raised serious questions about its alleged role in the communally charged controversy. The NPC stopped the transfers despite therecommendation for Kurunegala […]

Image: Political prisoner Thevathasan Kanagasabai . Early this week, Tamil political prisoner Thevathasan Kanagasabai (62) alias Nadan incarcerated in the high-security Welikada Prison agreed to suspend his fast unto death protest following the intervention of Minister Mano Ganesan. Kanagasabai was into the ninth day of a hunger strike demanding that he be granted bail to […]

By Ana Pararajasingham. In view of its strategic location in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is of interest to both Washington and Beijing as they seek to increase their presence in the Indian Ocean. Washington’s latest attempt to improve its position in Sri Lanka involves renegotiating the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) originally signed in mid-1995 when […]

In the last few weeks there has been hype about reforming the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA). Irrespective of three decades of struggle to reform this archaic Act by Muslim women, Muslim Members of Parliament (MPs) have only now come forward to iron out differences in the two sets of recommendations given by Justice […]

Image: Candles are burned at the memorial for slain humanitarian workers from Action Contre La Faim in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, August 11, 2006.  © 2006 Reuters. (New York/HRW) – Sri Lankan authorities have failed to bring to justice those responsible for the execution-style killing of 17 aid workers 13 years ago, Human Right Watch said today. On August 4, […]

Image courtesy of The National: During the anti-Muslim violence in places like Kurunegala, Hettipola and Minuwangoda where 29 mosques were damaged. (Asiantribue.com) Sri Lankan business chambers have failed to stand with Muslim owned SMEs at a darkest hour. “It was very sad for me to see the silence of Chamber of Commerce as the backlash on Muslim owned […]

Image: Keith Noyahr not willing to come to Sri Lanka in person to identify his  abductors. Senior State Counsel Lakmini Girihagama appearing on behalf of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) informed the Mount Lavinia Additional Magistrate that former Nation Deputy Editor Keith Noyahr has agreed to an identification parade via video technology. Girihagama made this remark […]