SRI LANKA: Authorities fail to investigate death threats and intimidation of a journalist

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Wiki Wikramarathna, a freelance journalist, videographer and blogger is under threat of death. Mr. Wikramarathna learned about a Singhala New Year Festival being organised by the Civil Security Committee of the Udyana Ward, Dehivala. This committee comes under the Ministry of Defense and the festival was organised with the permission of the chief incumbent of the temple, under the auspices of the Dehivala Police and on the patronage of the Dehivala mayor & municipal councilors. During the festival Mr. Wikramarathna, along with another person, covertly videotaped several married women dancing erotically to fast music wearing slippers inside the sermon hall of the Galvihara temple, in front of a statue of the Buddha.

When Mr. Wikramarathna made a video out of this clip and uploaded it to various social media platforms he was physically abused and threatened with death by the secretary of the committee, Sunil Shantha, of ‘Vendesivaththa’, Dehivala and others who stated that they were ‘Gota’s men’ (‘Api Gotage (We are here for the Secretary of Defense, Gotabhaya Rajapaksha).

Mr. Wikramarathna lodged a complaint with the Superintendant of Police, Mount Lavinia, and during the inquiry the Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr. Ginige, forced him to remove that video from the Internet even without examining it, just on the ‘hearsay’ of the 9 members who barged in to the ASP’s office showing the screenshots of the video.

This is a blatant example of the intimidation of a journalist by private persons acting with the protection of state officers. Despite having made a complaint with regard to the physical abuse and death threats no action has been taken against the perpetrators.

This case is yet another illustration of the exceptional collapse of the rule of law in the country.

CASE NARRATIVE:

According to the information that the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received, Mr. Wiki Wikramarathna of Udyana Ward, Dehivala in the Colombo District is a freelance journalist, photoonist and one of the pioneer bloggers in Sri Lanka on many social media platforms.

Mr. Wikramarathna states that he was physically intimidated and threatened with death by the secretary and other members of the Civil Security Committee of the Udyana Ward, Dehivala. Civil security committees were established by the Police when the country was undergoing the armed conflict related to the LTTE. They work closely with the regional police stations. However, it is known that they provide ‘information’ about other residents whom they do not like and wish to make trouble for. Since the government itself is saying that terrorism has been eliminated and therefore all checkpoints, barriers, walls in government departments & police stations are been taken down there is no need for such kind of civil security committees anymore, other than to provide information to the authorities on anti government elements. These committees use their unofficial extra judicial powers to do their own private businesses and to keep the corrupt police officers on their payroll. This is proved beyond doubt in Dehivala.

Mr. Wikramarathna is a respected freelance journalist & blogger who has been fighting against bureaucracy, corruption and impunity for several years. He has published numerous articles on development, bureaucratic corruption and on the situation of roads and the control of traffic for the ‘Daily News’. He created ‘Wiki Photoons’, which is a photographical cartoon depicting corruption and wrong doings by the regime, which is circulated around the world via his many social media platform accounts in Twitter, Google Plus and Gmail named as ‘SiSuSa Puvath’.

These are also posted on Mr. Wikramarathna own Facebook groups he created such as, ‘Singhalaya Surekeeme Sanvidhaanaya – SiSuSa’ (Organization to protect Sri Lanka), ‘Proud to be Singhala – PTBS’ & ‘Dhooshana Bheeshana Vanchaa’ which has thousands of members. The most popular group during the 2007 ~ 2009 LTTE war on Facebook was his ‘PTBS’ with over 11,250 Sinhala members from around the world.

He was also a nominee for Manthan Awards 2008 which is the largest IT award in South Asia held in New Delhi, where he led the Sri Lankan team. He is a recipient of a World Bank grant to e-publish data on Indigenous Knowledge used in buildings dating back to thousands of years in Sri Lanka. He was the 1st to start a web portal in Sri Lanka, which was the largest ever in his country and holds many a Patent & Design Rights too. He is also an ardent animal rights activist. Wiki has received accolades from many organizations for his work in many fields, as well as from the Sri Lanka Army for his work on helping the Army media unit during the LTTE war.

Mr. Wikramarathna was a nominee for the 2014 Transparency International’s National Integrity Awards, where he was placed amongst the seven finalists, though this year the award was not given to anyone. He also uploads information, videos & photos of the malpractices of the Dehivala Mount Lavinia Municipal Council as well as irregularities and misdeeds of Buddhist monks & their temples in the Dehivala electorate where he resides. Mr. Wikramarathna recently uploaded to YouTube, an Audio Clip of a municipal council worker scolding a consumer. It was revealed that even the governing municipal councilors are up in arms against him for exposing the irregularities of the ruling party of the Mayor Dhanasiri Amarathunga who is a very close associate of the President, as well as with many underworld goons who have been told about his work against government corruption.

In the video he uploaded of the incident in the temple Mr. Wikramarathna described all the individuals who were involved in this fracas with their sinister backgrounds, which included two police officers of the Dehivala police which is the main unit that oversees the civil security committee. The video was captioned ‘Gota’s Terror- Gotabhaya’s Civil Security Committee Disco Dances in the Galvihraya Temple’, as this was under the Defense Secretary and these people call themselves ‘Api Gotage (We are Gota’s – Defense Secretary’s).

This civil security committee members call themselves ‘Api Gotage’ (we are Gota’s) and in connivance with the Dehivala Police, instills fear amongst the civil society and on anyone going against them with their thuggery and the power of the Secretary of Defense, Gotabhaya, as shown aptly in the video. All of these members are involved with the much respected ‘Thrift and Credit Co-Operative society’ (Sanasa) of the area.

Mr. Wikramarathna complains that on 6 December 2013, the committee secretary, Sunil Shantha made verbal death threats directly to Wiki in front of many people at the funeral of one of Mr. Wikramarathna’s relations on Galvihara Road and also caused him physical harm.

He shouted and said ‘we know about you ‘fellow’s’ (thamuse) media work’, ‘you ‘fellow’ have uploaded things about us on the internet’, ‘you don’t know who I am’, ‘you ‘fellow’ will be chased away from Galvihara Road’, ‘you ‘fellow’ won’t be allowed to live’, ‘you ‘fellow’ will be killed’. When he was threatening Wiki like this, people in the funeral house came and took him near the gate and sent him home. Then again near the gate he threatened Wiki saying, ‘tell the Police if you can’, ‘the Police is in my hands’, ‘we came to your house twice’, ‘you ‘fellow’ don’t get caught’.

Mr. Wikramarathna also received an anonymous letter threatening him with death on the same day. The letter was date stamped 4 December 2013 and the contents of the letter were the same words used by Sunil Shantha when he made his threat.

Mr. Wikramarathna believes that the inquiry held by ASP Ginige was biased towards the committee, as he mentioned just at the start of the inquiry, that this was, the ‘Best Security Committee in the Dehivala Electorate’ and Mr. Wikramarathna was forced by ASP Ginige along with the members of this committee to remove the Video from the Internet which he did out of fear of reprissals.

At the inquiry meeting ASP Ginge did not hold the inquiry about the death threats, which he was scheduled and supposed to do, but inquired about the video which was uploaded by Wiki. He reprimanded Mr. Wikramarathna as to why he uploaded this Video and said in Singhala ‘Uda balan ela gahanna epaa’ (Don’t look up and spit) meaning ‘not to put out any material that shows Buddhists disgracing Buddhism by themselves.

This incident was reported in the ‘Sunday Times’ newspaper on 02nd March 2014. Later on, this incident was also discussed in length on Isira FM of the popular TNL TV channel, on the 03rd of March 2014.

Mr. Wikramarathna, states that his right to the freedom of expression was violated by the police & the members of the Civil Security Committee of the area. Further he states that the police did not conduct a prompt, efficient, independent and impartial inquiry into the violation of his fundamental rights or his complaint of physical abuse and death threat. Mr. Wikramarathna seeks justice.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

This attack must not be the prelude to a new wave of violence against journalists, which has been on the wane during the past year, in part because so many journalists are in exile. We remind the authorities that impunity continues to encourage wrongdoers.

Physical attacks against journalists have fallen overall since 2010 but threats and acts of intimidation continue to be common in Sri Lanka without the judicial authorities necessarily taking much interest.

The Asian Human Rights Commission observed the attack on Wiki Wikramarathna was nonetheless attack on Sri Lankan journalist in the recent past. Independent Televison Network journalist Niroshan Premarathna, Uthayan News Editor Gnanasundaram Kuganathan, Uthayan reporter Mr. S. Kavitharan of was assaulted in deferent places in the country. In the case of Niroshan Premarathna he was assaulted inside the Panadura Police Station even after his revitalization as journalist attached to the ITN.

The Asian Human Rights Commission observed that there were four murders of journalists in Sri Lanka since 2008 in which a link with the victim’s work was clearly established, and a well-known cartoonist, Prageeth Eknaligoda, has been missing since January 2010. None of these cases has been solved. More than 50 journalists and press freedom activists have fled abroad in recent years because their lives were in danger.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please send a letter to the authorities listed below expressing your concern about this case and requesting an immediate investigation into the allegations of death threats and physical intimidations against the journalist by private parties who act with the protection of the police, and the prosecution of those proven to be responsible under the criminal law of the country.

Please note that the AHRC has also written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression on this regard.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER