Sri Lankan journalists protest against state media suppression

Death threats to editors, police raids on websites, abduction and intimidation of journalists: the protesters had many complaints

Helen Pidd in Delhi and agencies   guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 July 2012

Journalists in Colombo protest against what they claim is media suppression, abduction of journalists and intimidation. Photograph: Pushpa Kumara/EPA

Sri Lankan journalists, activists and opposition lawmakers have staged a protest against media suppression and intimidation after the editor of a newspaper received a death threat from the president's brother.

Dozens of protesters gathered in the capital, Colombo, on Thursday. They denounced a recent police raid on websites critical of the government, as well as the alleged attempted abduction of a journalist, and secret police allegedly collecting journalists' personal information.

One protester was Frederica Jansz, editor-in-chief of the Sunday Leader, whose slogan is "unbowed and unafraid". Last week Jansz was warned by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's defence secretary and brother of the country's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, that "people will kill you" after she asked uncomfortable questions about his alleged abuse of power.

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