Attacks on Uthayam Newspaper and Tamil Shop-Owners in Australia. Freedom of Press under Threat - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -

The Sri Lanka Democracy Forum is deeply concerned about recent events in Sydney Australia, where copies of the newspaper Uthayam were destroyed, and shop owners distributing the paper were threatened.   Uthayam is a free monthly News Paper in Tamil and English published out of Melbourne. It is sustained mainly through advertising and distributed in all major Australian cities largely through shops owned by Tamils. In the past it has carried several independent and non-partisan analysis's on Sri Lankan issues, and has been reporting Human Rights violations committed by all parties. In recent months the paper carried articles on the Killing of political opponents by the LTTE, and the continuing recruitment and use of Child Soldiers.     In April this year, a private Tamil Radio broadcasting from Sydney sympathetic to the LTTE Inpath Thamil Oli, carried out a string of abusive attacks on Uthayam, especially targeting one particular columnist. The following day, a group of men entered a shop distributing Uthayam, removed some copies of the paper, and threatened the shop owner. SLDF fears that this incident may discourage other Tamil shop owners as well from distributing the newspaper, out of fear that they too may be subject to the same intimidation.    A significant number of Tamil and Sinhala people live in Australia, and a variety of views exist among individuals of both communities. In a welcome contrast to a number of other expatriate Sri Lankan communities, healthy debates and dialogues have often taken place between sections of the Tamil and the Sinhala communities here. But in spite of this, there have also been several attempts in the past to intimidate individuals, especially journalists, who have expressed views critical of the LTTE.   During the year 2000, a number of copies of Uthayam were forcibly removed and burned, and thugs instructed Tamil shop owners to stop distributing the paper. In the aftermath of this, the paper had to seek alternate distribution channels including the use of regular News Agents. In 2002, C Nagarajah, a Tamil journalist working for the weekly Tamil programme on state owned SBS Radio, received death threats following comments he made on the programme comparing the bombings in Bali (Indonesia) with the Central Bank bombing in Sri Lanka. Nagarajah had to later seek protection from the police.   SLDF strongly deplores intimidation of journalists, and calls on the Sri Lankan community in Australia and overseas to condemn such attacks, and calls on Tamil shop owners in Australia not to succumb to such intimidation and stop distributing the paper. SLDF also calls on Australian authorities to offer protection to the journalists and media concerned, and calls on all organisations committed to free press to express their support and solidarity with Uthayam. May 07, 2004

Search Universal