_________________
UPDATE - SRI LANKA
14 June 2007
"Mawbima" journalist's passport and identification document seized as
harassment campaign continues
SOURCE: Free Media Movement (FMM), Colombo
**Updates IFEX alerts of 5 June, 23 March and 24 January 2007 and 1
December 2006; please note that in previous alerts the journalist's name
was sometimes spelled "Parameshwaree" or "Parameswaree"**
(FMM/IFEX) - The following is an FMM press release:
Journalist Maunasamy Parmeshwari's passport and National ID taken away
The Free Media Movement (FMM) is deeply disturbed to note that journalist
Maunusamy Parameshwari's national identification document and passport were
taken away this morning and have not been returned to her.
Parameshwari was on her way to her offices at the "Mawbima" newspaper,
close to Boralla, Colombo 08. As she was walking through an underground
pedestrian crossing, two persons carrying small arms with ID ostensibly
showing they were from State security agencies approached her and demanded
that she produce her national identification document and passport. She
handed them over and was then asked to go to the Rajagiriya Police Station,
located nearby, to collect them at 3.00 p.m. (local time). Despite waiting
until 3.30 p.m. no one produced her ID or passport. She has lodged a
complaint with the Borella Police regarding this incident.
Parameshwari told the FMM that the person who took her documents was the
same person who bundled her into a van and warned her against speaking to
the media and politicians in April this year.
We recall with distaste that she was arrested by Terrorist Investigation
Division of Sri Lankan Police on 23 November 2006 and released on 22 Feb
2007 without any charge against her. Regrettably, the government, including
several senior ministers, worked hard to propagate dangerous lies regarding
her arrest and detention.
It is deplorable that a government which detained her for three months
without a single charge against her is still trying to vilify and
intimidate her. In the opinion of the FMM, her ethnicity and the nature of
her work at "Mawbima", shut down for political reasons by this government
earlier this year, are, we feel, the essential reasons for her continued
suffering at the hands of this government.
Occurring at a time when the President is meeting human rights
representatives of the UN in Geneva, we feel this episode is a telling
indicator of the real situation of human rights in Sri Lanka. We
unequivocally condemn this most recent intimidation of free media and in no
uncertain terms hold the government responsible for whatever happens to
Maunasamy Parameshwaree. We urge the relevant authorities to stop this
incredible erosion of media rights in a culture of impunity and fear and
request that they restore Parameshwaree's ID and passport without any
further delay.
For further information, contact the Free Media Movement, 237/22, Wijeya
Kumaratunga Road, Colombo 05, Sri Lanka, tel: +94 777 312 457, +94 11 257
3439, fax: +94 11 471 4460, e-mail: fmm@sltnet.lk, Internet:
http://www.freemediasrilanka.org
The information contained in this update is the sole responsibility of FMM.
In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit FMM.
________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE
555 Richmond St. West, # 1101, PO Box 407
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 3B1
tel: +1 416 515 9622, fax: +1 416 515 7879 alerts e-mail: alerts@ifex.org
general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org Internet site:
http://www.ifex.org/http://listmgr.ifex.org/lists/?p=preferences&uid=1ea94d458769155a3d8cd0200e8e6093
