[Protest against media suppression in Jaffna: FMM photo]
The occupying military in Jaffna and Vanni has been harassing the distributors of Ithu-Nam-Theasam monthly in recent days. Last week, a distributor of the paper was attacked at Uruththirapuram in Ki’linochchi district. The assault has come right after the distributor was interrogated at the military camp in Uruththirapuram, media sources in Jaffna said. A squad that followed him from assaulted him and dumped the papers into a reservoir. A systematic harassment of the distributors of the paper, which stands for the rights of Eezham Tamils, is reported also at several other locations in North.
Newspaper agents at Kungchar-kadai in Point Pedro said they have come under repeated harassments for distributing the monthly. Similar complaints have come also from Irupaalai and Achchezhu in Jaffna, according to media sources in Jaffna.
The printing press-owners have also been harassed by the occupying military in Jaffna according to instructions coming from Palaly military base.
SL military officers visiting the printing presses in Jaffna have instructed the printer owners to immediately alert them before printing the paper, the sources further said.
A systematic programme of harassment and threats against Tamil journalists, writers and publications is being coordinated on the direct instructions from the commanders of the occupying SL military in Jaffna and Vanni.
The monthly, registered, as a newspaper in Sri Lanka, stands firm on the principles of right to self-determination of Eezham Tamils and is edited by independent writer and popular columnist A. Jothilingam.
Tamil Net