US concerned over journos

5 March 2010 03:45 pm

The United States has expressed concern over the challenges being faced by journalists in Sri Lanka and says that such an environment was taking its toll on the journalism profession and the public at large.

“Unfortunately, recent times have been challenging for journalists in Sri Lanka. Such an environment takes its toll on the journalism profession,” Valerie Fowler, Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy for Sri Lanka and Maldives, said.

“People fear reporting the truth; they hesitate before writing or producing stories and consequently self-censor their reporting; or they succumb to the bribes and influence pervasive in the environment around them,” she said in her keynote address at the graduation ceremony of the College of Journalism.

In the process, such an environment also takes its toll on the public at large and on democratic traditions as a whole, Fowler said.

(PTI)