Halt attacks on journalists, ensure Freedom of
Expression for citizens
– SAFMA Sri Lanka
The Sri
Lanka Chapter of the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) strongly
condemns the deliberate violence against peaceful protestors near the
President’s Office and the physical assault and dispersal of journalists
covering the incidents by members of the security forces.
The attacks
on the political protestors on Galle Face Green, Colombo, and their forcible
dispersal is a blatant, brutal suppression of the protesting citizens’ freedom
of expression. The attacks on the journalists reporting these incidents is equally
condemned as a shocking violation of professional media rights as well as the
suppression of the right of citizens to information.
In the
interests of sustainable social peace and stability, SAFMA Sri Lanka calls on
the Government to respect the will of the country’s citizens who have
demonstrated peacefully and successfully, these past four months, their unified,
consensual, call for a complete change of regime. Without such stability, the
much-needed economic recovery is delayed, further burdening the people with
more suffering.
We call on
the world community to express solidarity with the struggle for democracy and
survival of society in Sri Lanka.
