From Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF) Newswire

14 March 2008

Committee to Protect Journalists, Media Release

Sri Lanka arrests six in connection with news Web site

Six people affiliated with the Sri Lankan news Web site OutreachSL have been detained by the Terrorist Investigation Division of the Sri Lankan police force in Colombo since last week, according to Agence France-Presse and local news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the government of Sri Lanka to charge these journalists and media workers or release them from police custody.

The six individuals, including journalists, editorial, and management staff of the multimedia news Web site OutreachSL, were detained separately between Thursday and Saturday last week, according to local press freedom group the Free Media Movement (FMM).

The six have not appeared in court, and it is not clear if they have been allowed access to legal council, FMM spokesman Sunanda Deshapriya told CPJ.

According to police records obtained by the FMM, one of the journalists is being investigated for links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Deshapriya said. The records said the other five had been detained for questioning, he said.

OutreachSL, a news Web site, is not known for controversial reporting. It is not clear what sparked the detentions, Deshapriya told CPJ. A journalist based in Colombo who declined to be identified told CPJ that Tissanayagam's Times column, "Telescope," offered a Tamil viewpoint of current affairs and was sometimes critical of the government.

Another FMM spokesman, S. Sivakumar, who edits the bimonthly Tamil magazine Sarinihar-which is printed by Jasiharan's printing company E-Kwality-was also detained for nearly 12 hours on Saturday, Deshapriya told CPJ. Police visited Sivakumar's office on Saturday morning and held his cousin there until Sivakumar arrived and agreed to be taken in for questioning, Deshapriya said.

The Free Media Movement and The Sunday Times reported that the detentions were made under emergency regulations. Sri Lanka's August 2005 emergency regulations allow detentions of up to 12 months without charge, while some provisions of the longstanding Prevention of Terrorism Act, which were re-enacted in December 2006, allow for 18-month detentions.

Families of the detained had not yet been given detention orders for their relatives, Deshapriya said.

The above is an excerpt from the full article available here