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Journalists’ detention criticised

COLOMBO: The Free Media Movement (FMM), Colombo based media welfare NGO, on Tuesday alleged that the military on Monday night detained two French journalists for filming a road block in the south.

The journalists were accompanying 11 members of a family whose relative is kept at a detention centre. As per the FMM, the family and the driver and conductor of the minibus they were travelling in were also detained.

“This is another instance of authorities over reacting on a right to know issue, ignoring that media has [the] right to report in a creative way on matters concerning [the] arrested and detention. FMM does not consider videoing a road block as a national security issue and expresses its serious concern of detaining [the] TV crew and a whole family on a minor incident,” said the FMM.

Several persons detained on suspicion of links with the LTTE are kept at a military interrogation centre in Boosa, close to Galle town. Family members are allowed to visit the detained once in a week.

The statement said the TV crew of the France 24 news channel filmed the road block for five seconds and stopped it when the military objected.

Further, it said the TV crew was not allowed to enter the detention centre with the family.

While they were waiting for the family to come out of the camp, the military arrested and handed them over to Rathgama police.

A police officer who watched the videotape told the FMM that there was a scene of the road block and they were being investigated by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID).

“Videoing a road block is not a crime to keep [a] whole family and two journalists over night in a police station. There are so many instances that road blocks are filmed for various purposes including news reporting. Making a film on a family is not a crime either. FMM views this as another attempt to intimidate foreign media covering conflict related issues in Sri Lanka,” said the statement.

Separately, the Army claimed that it continued to pound the “defences of the LTTE” in the north.

“Reports from the Northern battlefronts indicate that at least 14 terrorists were killed in the yesterday [Monday] clashes along the Wanni and Jaffna Forward Defense Lines during last 24 hours. Further, five soldiers were injured in the Monday’s battles and now are being treated at Vavuniya and Anuradhapura hospitals,” said the Defence Ministry .

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