Media battle heats up in Sri Lanka, again

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On March 22, the UN Human Rights Commission voted to investigate alleged war crimes committed during the Sri Lankan civil war. The war itself ended back in 2009, but the battle against independent journalists is far from over. In the past two months, state-run media have been targetting journalists critical of the government, labelling them as 'traitors'. Mervyn Silva, the public relations minister to Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan president, took to the airwaves announcing that he would 'break the limbs' of any journalist who attempted to challenge the government's narrative on the war.

Opposition voices on this island have been continuously threatened, silenced and forced into exile, so journalists and press freedom groups alike are not taking the threat lightly. In this week's News Divide, we look at the media battle that is intensifying in an already fragile media environment.

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