Death threats for Sri Lankan journalists who reported on alleged executions of Tamil rebels

Two newspaper editors recieved deaths threats last week after reporting on alleged video footage of Sri Lankan government soldiers executing Tamil prisoners.

Frederica Jansz and Munza Mushataq, editors of The Sunday Leader, recieved the handwritten letters on 22nd October, according to ARTICLE 19.

The newspapers’s previous editor Lasantha Wickrematunge was assassinated in January, three weeks after receiving a similar death threat.

After his death, The Sunday Leader published a posthumous editorial by Wickrematunge where he blamed the Sri Lankan Government for attacks on journalists, saying: "Electronic and print media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last."

Journalist and former Convener of the Sri Lankan Free Media Movement Uvindu Kurukulasuriya told ARTICLE 19: "The Sri Lankan government has failed to investigate the murder of Lasantha and bring his killers to justice and now there are the same death threats against his successors."

ARTICLE 19 has called on the Sri Lankan government to immediately investigate the death threats against The Sunday Leader editor-in-chief Frederica Jansz and news editor Munza Mushataq, and to ensure the safety of both women.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered an investigation, the BBC reports.

The footage, which was shown on Channel Four earlier this year, can be seen at Channel Four's World News Blog.

A recent US State Department report has also highlighted allegations that Sri Lankan troops or paramilitaries killed Tamil civilians during fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Suren Surendiran, a member of the British Tamils Forum, claimed in the Guardian on Monday 26 October that "Sri Lanka has committed nearly every form of crime against humanity".