Abbott should protest journalists' expulsion from Colombo

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Created On Saturday, 02 November 2013 13:15

Category: General

The Australian Government should protest loudly and clearly to its Sri Lankan counterpart over the expulsion of two Australian journalists who were attending a press freedom conference in Colombo this week, the Tamil Refugee Council says.

“If Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his government believes in press freedom, and the basic rights of its’ own journalists, it needs to show it by demanding a full explanation from Sri Lanka about the deportation of Australians Jacqui Park and Jane Worthington, who were doing nothing more sinister than attending a conference held by the Free Media Movement,” said Tamil Refugee Council spokesman, Aran Mylvaganam.

“Recently, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, said during a visit there that it was a country where the rule of law had been eroded and was becoming increasingly authoritarian. Here is more evidence of this.

“It further highlights the disgraceful decision by the Commonwealth, with Australia’s full support and active assistance, to hold next month’s CHOGM conference in Colombo.

“The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has refused to attend because of Sri Lanka’s horrific human rights record. His Foreign Minister, John Baird, described the decision to take CHOGM to Colombo as ‘accommodating evil.’ Australia, along with the UK, is happy to accommodate evil.

“We have seen an example of how this evil regime conducts its business with the deportation of these Australian journalists.

“It is a sham to use the excuse, as the government did, that they did not have a media visa, which is required by journalists to go to report in Sri Lanka. They were not reporting or doing interviews. They were attending a conference.

“It emphasizes the level of suppression that exists in Sri Lanka. This is a country that is ranked 162nd of 178 countries in the Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders. It is a country that has seen the murders of at least 39 media workers and journalists in the nine years president Mahinda Rajapaksa has been in power. There have been no proper investigations, let alone convictions.

“It is a country where a senior minister, Mervyn Silva, threatened to ‘break the legs’ of journalists who criticized the regime, where the defence minister and brother of the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, made an open death threat to an editor, who was forced to flee the country. It is a country where two Australian journalists attending a conference to discuss media freedom were tailed, spied upon, detained and questioned for 15 hours before being deported.

“This is the sort of behaviour Australia has endorsed by attending CHOGM, along with murder, rape, torture, disappearances and intimidation of mostly Tamil people in Sri Lanka.The governments of Australia and the other countries going to CHOGM should hang their heads in shame.”

If you live in Melbourne and want to let the government know this is not on, please join a “No to CHOGM in Colombo” rally at the State Library, corner Swanston ad Latrobe Streets, on Monday, November 11 at 5pm.

For further details contact the Tamil Refugee Council Press Office, 0400 597 351.