Return to War - Human Rights Watch

VIII. Freedom of Expression and Association
Article 14 of the Sri Lankan constitution enshrines the rights to freedom of speech,
assembly, association, and movement. However, since 2006 the government has
increasingly intimidated and tried to silence the media, NGOs, and others with
independent or dissenting views of government military and human rights policies. It
has dismissed critics of the government’s military strategy as allies of the LTTE and
traitors of the state. Shortly after the government enacted the Emergency Regulations
of 2006, President Rajapaksa gave a speech in which he equated opposition to the
government’s war efforts as support for the LTTE and terrorism:
I ask this of all political parties, all media, and all people’s
organizations. You decide whether you should be with a handful of
terrorists or with the common man who is in the majority. You must
clearly choose between these two sides. 161
Journalists and NGO activists in particular found these words chilling given the new
Emergency Regulations, which broadly criminalize “aiding and abetting the LTTE.”
Two weeks later, on December 20, 2006, two senior journalists from The Sunday
Observer, Ranga Jayasurya and Lionel Yodasinghe, were summoned to the
headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Division of the police and questioned
under the newly enacted counterterrorism regulations. 162
The government has created an environment in which criticism of government
policies has left the media and activist groups vulnerable to arrest and attack. In
such an environment, suggestions that the media and human rights groups can be
lumped together with the LTTE can be very dangerous. This has already silenced
161 Address to the Nation by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, December 6, 2006,
http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca200612/20061207address_to_the_nation.htm (accessed May 30,
2007).
162 “Senior Journalists Questioned by Police under New Anti-Terrorism Regulations,” Free Media Movement press release,
December 21, 2006, http://freemediasrilanka.org/index.php?action=con_news_full&id=401&section=news (accessed May
25, 2007).
81
Human Rights Watch August 2007