Danger on SL journalists eased - IFJ

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a world-wide media group said that dangers on journalists in Sri Lanka have eased with the end of fighting.

“The end of Sri Lanka's war against terrorism almost two years ago has led to a decline in violence, but the climate of impunity for violations of journalists' rights continues," the report, which was released in New Delhi on Tuesday to mark World Press Freedom Day, stated.

The report titled "Free Speech in Peril: Press Freedom in South Asia" also said that investigations of  killings and disappearances of journalists in Sri Lanka have made little headway.”

Commenting on the other South Asian nations, the IFJ said intensifying conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan pose threats to the lives of journalists.

It also said threat levels to journalists also remain high in conflict-ridden areas of India's remote northeast, the Himalayan region of Kashmir and central India, where Maoist rebels have stepped up a decades-old insurgency.

In Nepal, threats to reporters' lives have declined sharply since the end of a decade-long armed revolt by Maoists, the report said. The rebels were known to frequently threaten, beat and kill journalists who wrote critical articles about them.