SLA intimidates Jaffna media- TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 January 2007, 00:07 GMT]
“Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldiers Tuesday night entered three Jaffna based Tamil newspaper offices, threatened the staff, and took away at gun point the press communiqué from Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) waiting to be published," said Kirushnan Sivanesan, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian for Jaffna district Wednesday.

“A group of Army personnel in a number of vehicles intruded the ‘Yarl Thinakkural’, ‘Uthayan’ and ‘Valampuri’ newspaper offices, instructed the editorial staff not to publish the report of JUSU. Colombo, through the SLA has embarked on crippling the Jaffna media using the recently introduced Emergency regulations.

“Intimidations and restrictions on media institutions are escalating. Uthayan office had come under attack in May and following the incident Police protection was given to the office. However, the SLA soldiers ignored the security, entered the office and have committed the crime. I condemn this act vehemently,” the MP said.

The JUSU communique contained a call for a general shut down in the Peninsula and none of the newspapers published the report on Wednesday.

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