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Sri Lanka press crackdown

Sydney Morning Herald - February 1, 2010

Matt Wade – The Sri Lankan government has detained a Colombo newspaper editor and revoked the accreditation of a Swiss correspondent, raising fears that media freedoms could deteriorate further after the re-election last week of the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The editor of the Sinhalese-language Lanka Irida Sangrahaya, Chandana Sirimalwatte, was escorted out of his office by officers from the Criminal Investigations Department on Saturday and the premises were closed.

Local media reported that the newspaper had published an article that was a "threat to national security".

Last year it published articles allegedly exposing corruption by Mr Rajapaksa's family.

A correspondent for Swiss public radio, Karin Wenger, is facing deportation today after her Sri Lankan media accreditation was cancelled.

A spokesman for Swiss public radio said no reasons had been given for the cancellation.

"I think I am being expelled for asking inconvenient questions during a government press conference," Ms Wenger, who is based in New Delhi, told Agence France-Presse.

Sri Lanka has been ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.

In January last year, the editor-in-chief of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunga, was assassinated on his way to work. No charges have been laid in relation to his death.

The International Federation of Journalists has also expressed concern about the safety of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, who has been missing for a week.

"Efforts to obstruct free reporting suggest that the political mood is becoming more uncompromising on the part of the authorities, despite the comfortable margin of victory registered by Mahinda Rajapaksa," the federation's general secretary, Aidan White, said.

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