IFJ 15 February 2021
Why January remains black for journalists in Sri Lanka
Black January has traditionally also been used to highlight impunity for these crimes. But it is also important to look at continuing violations, writes Ruki Fernando. Sri Lankan Black January protests in 2018. Credit:LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP
For many years, Sri Lankan media freedom organisations have commemorated “Black January”, recalling the numerous violations of free expression and crimes against free expression committed during the month of January. With Covid-19’s onset, this year’s Black January event took place online on January 29.
Earlier in the month, editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was killed in January 2009, was remembered by family and colleagues. After 12 years of waiting for justice, his daughter is reported to have lodged a complaint with the Switzerland-based United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC). The Committee usually accepts complaints after the exhaustion
Posted on February 10th, 2021
Courtesy Adaderana
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa says that permission will be granted for the burial of COVID-19 victims.
The Premier mentioned this in response to a question raised by Parliamentarian S.M. Marikkar during the parliamentary session today (February 10).
Quoting State Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID Disease Control Sudarshini Fernandopulle, the parliamentarian said COVID-19 does not transmit through water and requested the Prime Minister to grant permission to bury victims of novel coronavirus.
In April last year, the Sri Lankan government amended a law to make cremation compulsory for those who fall victim to the novel coronavirus with the intention of preventing any potential threat.
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COLOMBO (News 1st): The 43-year-old COVID-19 patient who left the Punani COVID-19 Treatment Facility in Valaichchenai on Tuesday evening (Jan. 19), was located in Eheliayagoda on Wednesday morning, (Jan. 20), Sri Lanka Police said.
“The Eheliyagoda Police had arrested the patient at around 8:30 this morning in Palpitiya of the Eheliyagoda Police jurisdiction, and he will be transferred to a Treatment Facility,” Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana said on Wednesday (Jan. 20).
Sri Lanka Police are currently investigating the route taken by the patient to travel from Valaichchenai to Eheliyagoda.
“Once the treatment process concludes, legal action will be taken against the patient under the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance,” the Deputy Police Chief emphasized.
Systematic discrimination and human rights violations against minority communities in Sri Lanka are not new in the country’s political and social realm. The most recent of such violations have been brought to the forefront during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, exposing the State’s skewed practices in its wake. This will be an endeavor to examine how a purely tolerant (in its classical sense) society is ultimately an unrealistic, and moreover destructive, standard to strive towards. By analyzing various viewpoints on what tolerance truly means within the context of Sri Lanka’s treatment of its religious minorities, the ideology itself comes to scrutiny. A system of checks and balances is pertinent by both state and non-state actors for the survival of a society and the ultimate protection of the religious minorities in a country where they are routinely marginalized and discriminated against, specifically in the context of the rise of religious intolerance faced by the M