Rajapakse government had given the assurance to address human rights concerns through a National Plan of Action on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights during the Universal Periodic Review of Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.

J. S. Tissainayagam a senior journalist and Sunday Times columnist was produced in Colombo Magistrate’s court yesterday by the TID. He was further remanded.

For the last two years 9 journalists were killed. This tragedy is showed the unwillingness of Rajapakse regime to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression.

Today the law of jungle remains in the country. Two prisoners were shot dead by unidentified armed men at Chunnakam in Jaffna while they were being taken to the Point Pedro Courts from the Jaffna prison.

According to the media the government has reportedly rejected a request made by a delegation from the European Union three member states to travel to the Eastern Province as the delegation had refused to meet the newly appointed Eastern Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan.

So, NPA is only for cheating the international community. It won’t do anything for the marginalised.

Senior journalist and Sunday Times columnist J.S. Tissainayagam was produced in Colombo Magistrate’s Court yesterday. He was further remanded.

He was taken into custody by the TID alleging that he had aided and abetted the LTTE and kept in detention at the TID without any charges for more than three months.

Counsel for journalist complained to the Colombo Magistrate that under Emergency Regulations it was illegal to detain a suspect at the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) after 90 days.

Few weeks ago Paranirupasingam Devakumar, who worked for a national television network in Jaffna was killed in a brutal way.

This killing comes soon after the abduction and the brutal assault and torture of senior journalist and The Nation newspapers associate editor Keith Noyahr in Colombo.

These incidents are the direct evidence for media suppression by the Mahinda Rajapakse government. This is also the worst administration for the journalists in the country’s political history.