New UK TV channel a pro-LTTE move?

A new television channel, Thendral TV, launched in the UK and commencing telecasts on July 14, 2008, has come under suspicion of being a pro-LTTE station.

The new transmission commenced telecasts barely a month after the Israeli decision to close down Tharishanam TV transmission after the Israel authorities were informed about the link between the terrorist organisation and Tharishanam.

It is also reported that the transmission licence for Thendral TV was obtained by a well-known LTTE supporter through the Tendral Medical Centre.

The transmission rights have been acquired from Nepali Television, which is a Nepali language television service established several years ago in UK.

Thendral TV is using frequency 11.727 of EUtelsat Hotbird and its UK service provider’s address is Crawley Court, Winchester, Hampshire SO21 2QA.

Thendral TV is registered under Thendral Media Ltd UK at 135 Q, Alexandra Park Road, London N22 7UL, United Kingdom.

Analysts believe that the Thendral TV would initially telecast songs and cultural programmes and gradually move onto hard LTTE propaganda material to assist the terrorist organisation in its fund raising activities.

Read more,
http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/08/01/sec02.asp

ITN journalist critically injured in LTTE mortar attack

ITN’s News Editor Anura Dorakumbura and the Cameraman of the Newsroom Suranga Basnayake came under a mortar attack. Suranga Basnayake was critically injured. The gallant soldiers risking their lives on this occasion carried the two ITN journalists swiftly to a secure place.

ITN salutes the war heroes and senior officers providing them leadership for this noble task. Driver G.G.Gunasena’s dedication to promptly transport Suranga Basnayake to the Anuradhapura General Hospital is noteworthy. He drove the vehicle at a high speed on rugged roads in the Mullaitivu thick jungles with the intention of immediately transporting them to the Anuradhapura Hospital. The services discharged by the gallant soldiers on behalf of the ITN personnel deserve accolades.

Read more,
http://www.itn.lk/news_02_20080726.html

Ready for talks if LTTE down weapons first - President

He was not aware as yet of Indian diplomats arriving in Colombo for the SAARC Summit bringing their own security, however he saw nothing wrong in leaders of countries having their own security when they travel abroad, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the Indian media yesterday. (July 12).

He was answering questions regarding security for Indian delegates to the SAARC Summit in Colombo, at a press conference at Thirupathy in Andhra Pradesh, prior to his departure for Sri Lanka.

“I have my own security here. It is natural. Any leader who comes to another country will not just walk in there. They will bring their own security. We consider it our duty to look after their security while in Sri Lanka, but they also bring their own security. Every leader does that”, the President said.

Answering a question about a statement by the LTTE’s Political Wing leader, Nadesan, that the Government was not willing to reopen negotiations, President Rajapaksa said the government was ready even today.

“I am ready today. Let them keep their weapons down, because whenever they are weak they are ready for talks.”

Asked about possible deadline for talks with the LTTE, President Rajapaksa said there was no deadline as it was up to the LTTE. “From my side, we are ready. Only, they must give up arms, and give up terrorism. You know the problems you have in your own country with terrorists and terrorist organisations.”

“See what happened in Kabul. Terrorism strikes in Kabul, New York, London and Colombo. It is all the same. You cannot achieve anything through terrorism,” he said. Asked whether he was interested in mediation, he said it should be possible to settle this matter by direct discussions: “We are all Sri Lankans, we are all brothers, whether we are from the North, East or South. Surely we can settle this by talking to each other”.

Read more,
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2008/07/13/pol05.asp
Video source,
http://www.itn.lk/news_01_20080712.html

Sri Lankan media offers reward for tips on attackers

The Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) and the Newspaper Publishers Association are offering a reward of five million rupees for information on the assault on journalist Namal Perera.

Informants could give information that lead to the arrest of the assailants by calling 0033 147 777 414 or sending emails to helppresssrilanka@gmail.com, representatives of the organisations told a news conference Wednesday.

The informants could remain anonymous and use a code to claim the reward, they said.

Freelance journalist Namal Perera, who writes about the ethnic war and also works for the SLPI, was clubbed along with UK embassy political officer Mahendra Ratnaweera and their car smashed by a group of unidentified men in broad daylight Monday.

They were hospitalised after the assault, the latest in a string of attacks on journalists, especially defence correspondents, which drew widespread condemnation.

Read more,
http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?nid=404633347

Government of Sri Lanka upgrades to Jampro Antenna System for multi-frequency, full island coverage

Jampro Antennas announced that the national television network of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC), is upgrading its mountain-top antenna system with a new Jampro panel antenna system.

The Jampro model JHD-HV4, a half wave space four dipole flat panel antenna was specially selected by SLRC for the tough multi-channel assignment. It will be mounted atop 2,500 metre high Mt. Pidurutalagala, the highest peak in Sri Lanka, and exposed to extreme weather conditions.

Constructed of heavy-duty, hot dipped galvanized steel, the JHD-H4V will be the prime antenna to feed all other SLRC transmissions throughout the country.
Utilizing a pressurized feed system, the JHD-HV4 is designed for high-band VHF (Ch 7-13) Band lll. It has proven to have excellent bandwidth and low VSWR.
SLRC made its first transmission in 1982.

It expanded its studio and transmission facilities in 1986 and transitioned to digital technology in 1998 under three grant aid projects from the Government of Japan. The studio complex is located in Colombo, the commercial capital of Sri Lanka.

Extracted from,
http://www.onscreenasia.com/article-3358

Journalist hacked to death in Jaffna

Sirasa Jaffna reporter P. Devakumaran was hacked to death this afternoon in Navthurei by an unidentified gang.

Paranirupasingham Devakumar, 34, and his friend were returning home at Vadukkodai on a motorcycle when they were taken by an unidentified group at Navatturai around 6.00 pm, report said.

Their bodies are presently lying at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital.

The friend, Mahendran Varadan was a 28-year-old employee of the District Secretariat.

Extracted from,
http://www.lankaeverything.com/vinews/srilanka/20080528130447.php

Were Noyahr’s abductors trying to get a lead on his `sources’?

As Thursday’s abduction and torture of Keith Noyahr, Associate Editor of The Nation, drew widespread condemnation, Sunday Island inquiries revealed his tormentors had been taken him to Dompe and then brought him back to his Dehiwela residence after Rivira Media Corporation triggered a frantic search for him.

Well informed sources said the gang would have been after the identity of Noyahr’s ‘sources.’

The timely intervention of Lalith Alahakoon, Editor of The Nation and Krishantha Prasad Cooray,

CEO of the Rivira Media Corporation, had forced the government to search for the missing journalist. But his release, the sources said asserted would have been after the gang had established the identities of the target’s ‘sources.’

Now, they would be after his ‘sources,’ the sources said. Had not for their intervention, Noyahr would have been killed and dumped somewhere, the sources said.

A UK based businessman early this year bought a 49 per cent stake of Rivira Media Corporation which publishes ‘Rivira’, ‘The Nation’ and ‘Bottom Line’ newspapers. He is reported to have paid Rs. 100 million.

Read more,
http://www.island.lk/2008/05/25/news2.html

President orders full investigation into attack on Keith Noyahr

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has directed IGP Victor Perera to launch a full investigation into the abduction and attack on senior journalist, Keith Noyahr who is the Deputy Editor of The Nation newspaper.

Noyahr went missing last night and his wife had lodged a complaint at the Dehiwala Police Station when his vehicle was found empty outside his house around 11.00 pm.
Noyahr had been released by his abductors early this morning (May 23) around 5.30 and had come home carrying severe injuries. He was hospitalized thereafter.

Police Spokesman N.K. Ilangakoon said that three police teams have been deployed to carrry out the investigation.

Extracted from,
http://www.news.lk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5927&Itemid=44
Photos,
www.dailymirror.lk

Sri Lanka allows foreign media to cover council polls

Sri Lankan government today yielded to the demands of foreign media to allow them to cover this weekend's Eastern Provincial council elections after initial hesitation due to security fears.

"Our apprehensions were only that the foreigners should be protected during the elections. We wanted them to be free from any danger of any possibility of LTTE attack," a defence official told agencies.

"The issue has been sorted out. We have decided to allow the foreigners to cover the elections on producing a valid Media I-card," the official said.

Earlier, it was decided that any foreigner not registered as an election observer cannot be allowed in the Eastern province during the polls. The defence ministry intervened following the objections and decided to reverse the planned restrictions.

Fierce clashes between the Sri Lankan security forces and the LTTE has led to the death of more than 70,000 people since 1983. The government fully liberated the eastern part of the country from the Tamil rebels last July.

Campaigning for the Eastern Provincial Council Elections, scheduled for May 10, ended last night.

Read more,
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=441880&sid=SAS

Journalism and unionism: Different from terrorism

It is reported that the Sri Lankan security forces have arrested three Sinhalese men in Colombo. They have been identified as journalists attached to a trade union paper (not a known national newspaper). There is strong evidence proving their links to the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and they were nabbed with a haul of arms and ammunition in their possession.

Soon after the arrests of these so-called journalists, politically motivated movements, going under various names, came out with their usual slogans of ’free’, ’fair’, ’abduction’, ’human rights’, etc and attempted to manipulate the situation to discredit the government on human rights issues.

During the investigation, it was found that one of the Sinhalas, LTTE terrorists was a ranked activist in one of the trade unions in the railway department. The leading figure in the gang, during his confession, had stated that their party was against ’neo imperialism’, with a different face and their main aim was to strongly act against it.

Incidentally, this new development was revealed at a time when the so-called ’ultra leftwing’, ’anti neo imperialist’ party leaders like Vickramabahu Karunrathna, called upon the Tamil Tigers to join hands with the working masses in the country and abroad to fight together to liberate the country from global capital and national oppression. According to the media reports, Karunrathna was said to have made the above comments at a public meeting at ’Krishjohn’ social club in Eastham, organised by the Tamil Information Centre, Tamil Community Forum and the World Peace Organisation in East London.

He is expected to address a series of meetings in Britain with his newly found theory, probably with the full patronage of the pro-LTTE organisations active abroad. Apparently, Karunrathna is not aware that he is calling the working masses in the country to join hand with an organisation, whose top nine leaders, including Prabhakaran, Soosai and Pottu Amman are criminals and ’wanted’ by the Interpol.

Read more,
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=131611

President moves to stop strike action, pledges security to Rupavahini employees

Fruitful discussions between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and trade unions of the State Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) yesterday (17th) resulted in averting disruptive strike action.

During the meeting held yesterday between the President and the SLRC employees, President pointed out that police inquiries would determine whether Minister Mervyn Silva was involved or not in the spate of attacks on Rupavahini employees and everyone should ensure that no violence be used on any media personnel again. IGP Victor Perera confirmed that full investigations into the attacks are being conducted.

Attending the meeting, Minister of Mass Media and Information, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa commenting on the incidents that took place earlier during the day stated that the armed forces were called to prevent a plan to disrupt work at SLRC.

Read more,
http://www.news.lk/index.php?

Remove Mervin or strike on Monday! Rupavahin employees tell President

The employees of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini (SLRC) Corporation have asked President Mahinda Rajapakse to take immediate action to arrest those responsible for brutal attacks on Rupavahini employees and take legal action against them. They have demanded that Minister of Labour Mervin Silva should be removed from his ministerial post and all those who have been victimized should be compensated.

They have warned that if their demands are not met they would resort to strike action from Monday (tomorrow). Five employees of Rupavahini Corporation have been attacked by thugs since Minister Mervin Silva broke into the corporation with his team of thugs to intimidate a news director and were detained and treated to an ink bath by the employees of the corporation.

The latest attack was on Anurasiri Hettige, a SLRC trade union leader, who was beaten by an unidentified gang using iron rods. Mr. Hettige is undergoing treatment in Intensive Care Unit of the Colombo National Hospital.

Extracted from,
http://www.lankatruth.com/index.php?

Another Rupavahini Corporation staffer hunted

The latest target of the hunt down of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation staff is Anurasiri Hettige, the Chairman of the trade union attached to JVP.

When Mr. Hettige was waiting at Kotokawaththa junction to go for duty around 7.30 AM today (14), a group of thugs attacked him with a sharp knife injuring his head. He was immediately admitted to Colombo General Hospital with severe bleeding from his head. Poddala Jayantha, the Secretary of the Working Journalists' Association who was in hospital said to 'Lanka-e-News' that the doctors were attending his injuries.

This is the fifth incident of the spate of violence the SLRC workers are facing since Minister Mervin Silva who trespassed the SLRC premises and assaulted the News Director was chased by the staff.

Media organizations joined with the main opposition launched a massive demonstration before the SLRC on March 11 against hunting SLRC staff. On that day, they declared that the SLRC would strike work continuously if another worker is attacked.

Extracted from,
http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=5546

Foreign Ministry slams AI report

The recent Amnesty International report fails to acknowledge the many positive steps taken by the Government to promote freedom of expression which is enshrined in the Constitution, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

It fails to acknowledge any positive steps taken by the Government of Sri Lanka to enhance protection in an environment of combating terrorism and shadowy killers, the Ministry said.

The Ministry said: “The attention of the Government of Sri Lanka has been drawn to a recent report issued by Amnesty International titled “Sri Lanka-Silencing Dissent” on alleged threats to media and media freedom.

The Report is totally misplaced - a contradiction between the title ‘silencing dissent’ and Government’s sustained policy of open and constructive engagement with the international community and international human rights mechanisms.

In 2007 the Government extended invitations to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, the Special Rapporteur on Torture, and in early 2008, to a delegation from the Inter Parliamentary Union and Ms Angela Kane, the UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs.

Read more,
http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/03/08/news03.asp

The arrests that upset terror-supporting media

A local TV station in its evening news telecast yesterday (February 25), reported that an unidentified gang that had come in a white van abducted a person named Muththusami Ilankoowan alias Sami at Pettah, Colombo on the same day evening.

According to this TV station the person who was a holder of a Singaporean passport had been accommodated at a hotel on Kadireshan road before getting "disappeared".

Media personnel of this TV station who seemed to have got the first hand information on this "disappearance", quickly inquired from the police media spokesman who was only able inform them what he knew at the time.

Later, the police spokesperson informed relevant media station that the person that it was referring as disappeared was actually a suspect arrested by the police. However, the media station carried out the same story spinning it as an abduction that carried out by the government giving less prominence to the police spokesman's clarification.

A senior intelligence official speaking exclusively to defence.lk said that Muththusami Ilankoowan is a number one LTTE terrorist who is suspected to have a hand in many civilian massacres carried out by LTTE in the south. Muttusami, is a Sri Lankan born Tamil, who has strong connection with terror chief V.Prbhakaran, and also with LTTE's international wing leaders such as Castro , Kumaran Padmanadan, David and Iyyanna.

India should put pressure on LTTE: TULF chief

The international community, especially India, should put pressure on the LTTE to refrain from killing innocent civilians in Sri Lanka, a senior Tamil politician has said.

"The time has now come for India to step in and tell the LTTE to keep hands off civilians," Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) president V Anandasangaree said.

"The LTTE's only hope now is to unleash fresh violence for which the Sinhalase are not prepared," he said in a statement from London.

"I condemn every killing. I believe that no one has any right to take the life of another," he said.

"It (the killings) will not take them (LTTE) anywhere. Instead they lose their credibility day by day. It is high time the international community warn the LTTE to refrain from causing the death of innocent civilians," he said.

He criticised the Tamil media in Lanka for not being categorical in blaming the LTTE for the killings of civilians in the country.

Read more,
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200802071540.htm

Japan not to suspend aid to Sri Lanka

Japan has told Sri Lanka that it has no plans to suspend development aid to the island nation as reported in the international media.

Japan's special envoy Yasushi Akashi told Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona over the phone Friday that his country had not changed its aid policy vis-a-vis Sri Lanka and it would stick to the commitments it had made.

Akashi said that Japan welcomed the proposals made by the Sri Lankan all party panel on devolution of power and commended President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his efforts to find a peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict.

The international media had reported from Tokyo Thursday that Akashi had warned that Japan would cut off aid to Sri Lanka if the latter continued with its military operations against the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Read more,
http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/

Women militants forced to join LTTE in Sri Lanka

Women are being forced into joining the LTTE, and are homesick, according to letters purportedly recovered from slain woman militants in Sri Lanka.

"Every LTTE cadre is anxious to see his or her parents and I will come home for pongal (festival) though I do not know what my fate will be," said one letter recovered by security forces from a slain woman militant.

"Amma, what can I do? When all those at home in the area were taken away, I too had to go with them (LTTE)," said the letter, which was released by the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) to the media.

The letter, written in Tamil, with small portions in English, said "every fighter cries 'Amma' and 'Appa' at the time of their heroic death. They are all anxious to see their mothers."

Read more,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Rest_of_World/Women_militants_force

Lanka should remove defence system in Palk strait: MDMK

MDMK leader Vaiko on Friday demanded that the Centre ask the Sri Lanka government to remove the underwater defence system set up across the Palk strait on the International Maritime Boundary Line.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a copy of which was made available to the media, Vaiko said the system would damage and destroy the fishing boats of Indian fishermen.

He said the Sri Lankan navy had communicated to the Indian Navy to inform Tamil Nadu fishermen not to venture out for fishing between Kachatheevu and Neduntheeve in the Palk strait, as mines had been placed.

Read more,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Lanka

LTTE refutes SLAF claims of air strike on Tiger leadership

Liberation Tigers Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan Wednesday evening refuted the claims by the Sri Lanka Air Force that it had hit a location of the leader of the LTTE Velupillai Pirapaharan Wednesday morning. Stating that Colombo was spreading false propaganda, Mr. Ilanthirayan said the SLAF attack targeted civilian settlements at Vaddakkachchi twice between 11:10 a.m. and 11:35 a.m. and in the evening between 5:15 and 6:00 p.m.

Mr. Ilanthirayan was responding to questions raised by media in Colombo.

Earlier in the day, the SLAF had claimed that it had hit a key LTTE base describing the target as LTTE's nerve centre and stating it was awaiting confirmation on whether the LTTE leader was residing in the target, which it named as "X-ray base".

Colombo was engaged in such false propaganda, also during the Tsunami catastrophe and on many occasions earlier, he said.

Extracted from,
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=24389