Tamil Woman Journalist Arrested at World Press Freedom Day Conference
May 4th, 2006
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
In an ironic incident illustrating the climate of grave insecurity amidst which Tamil journalists are working in Sri Lanka a young Tamil woman journalist was arrested when trying to attend a conference in Colombo to mark the World Press freedom day.
Twenty – six year old Sivaramya Sivanathan working as a relief announcer at the Sri Lanka broadcasting corporation was arrested on May 1st at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference hall where a UNESCO sponsored three day conference for International media representatives to mark world press freedom day.Sivaramya was produced in court on May 2nd and remanded to the Welikade prisons. Her case is to be heard again on May 5th.
It is learnt that she was detained initially by ministerial security division personnel in charge of Foreign Affairs minister Mangala Samaraweera who suspected her of being a woman suicide bomber targetting the minister. Sivaramya was then handed over to the Cinnamon Gardens Police who in turn produced her in courts. Colombo chief magistrate Kusala Weerawardene ordered Sivaramya to be held till May 5th at the Welikade remand prison.
May 1st saw UNESCO sponsored World Press Freedom day conference being inaugurated at the BMICH in Colombo. Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera delivered the keynote address. Invitations were sent out to many journalists in Colombo for the ceremony. Some journalists were also officially assigned to cover the event.
There are many instances where journalists attend events and functions to which they are not officially invited or assigned to cover. The journalists do so because of particular interest in the event or to meet particular persons. Journalists also turn up in large numbers at events of relevant interest to the media. This writer recalls with wistful nostalgia many such events attended by him though not officially assigned or invited. Of course those were the days when security was not a major concern as it is now.
Journalists close to Sivaramya say that she too had wanted to attend the inaugural function of World Press freedom day. Sivaramya has been a relief announcer at the SLBC Tamil service since 2003. She has also been selected as a news reader for Independent Television Network. She had gone to BMICH for the function without an invitation . She had gone because of its significance to her profession.
Many people including women were attending the function without invitations. There was no problem as most of them were from the majority community. But Sivaramya Sivanathan being a Tamil woman had a problem. She was asked to produce her invitation which she did not have.The security personnel became suspicious.
Mangala’s security men in particular were agitated. She produced her national identity card and media accreditation card and SLBC ID card but these were of no avail. She was searched and nothing was found. Yet Minster Samaraweera’s men insisted on her being handed over to the police.
The suspicion was that Sivaramya was a suicide bomber come to target Samaraweera.The lack of communication between Sivaramya and her captors due to her “weak” Sinhala and their “weak” Tamil and English was another problem.
The Police then took over. Upon checking with SLBC they found her credentials to be genuine. SLBC Tamil services director Jeevendra Kumar vouched for her. He told the Police that she was not officially assigned to cover the event but had gone there out of interest and with his permission. It appeared to be a straight – forward matter and had the suspect been a non – Tamil would have been released without much fuss.
But the suspect was a Tamil and a woman. It was only last week that a suspected Tamil woman had allegedly exploded at the Army headquarters. So Sivaramya was held overnight and produced in court the following day. The courts do have power to exercise their judgement and discretion in cases up before them. It is not mandatory that courts should believe everything the cops tell them. But when Tamils are produced as suspects in cases like these the courts remand them as a matter of routine.
The POlice told courts that the case was to be handed over to the national intelligence service terrorist investigation division to inquire into Sivaramya and ascertain whether she had any terrorist connections. So Chief magistrate Kusala Weerawardene duly remanded Sivaramya until May 5th.
Meanwhile members of her family, the SLBC and Media organizations began agitating. UNESCO officials too were upset at this and made representations at the highest levels. Initially security personnel had spread the story that a suicide bomber had come to kill Mangala Samaraweera and been arrested. This led to much excitement among the delegates at the conference. But soon the truth emerged. There was much anxiety and horror among the foreign journalists at this ill – advised arrest.
Some of these journalists too began agitating for Sivaramyas release. Any political capital that Mahinda Rajapakse could have made by staging the WRFD conference in Colombo was lost due to two matters. One was the attack on “Uthayan” newspaper office in Jaffna. The other was the arrest of Sivaramya Sivanathan. The foreign journalists got a first hand impression of what life was like for Tamil journalists in Sri Lanka. If this was the plight of journalists then the situation faced by ordinary Tamils had to be even more difficult.
One reason for security suspicion was the birthplace of Sivaramya. She was born in Jaffna and was originally from Wyman road in Nallur. She has been living in Colombo since 1996. Sivaramya had her education at Chundikuli Girls High School in Jaffna and the Hindu Ladies College in Colombo. In addition to her journalism Sivaramya is also an external student of Peradeniya university.
Interestingly enough Sivaramya’s uncle Sivathasan was a senior administrative services official who held many top positions under Governments headed by JR Jayewardene, Ranasinghe Premadasa and Chandrika Kumaratunga. Her grandfather Sivagnanam was also a former Government Agent. Her father Sivanathan is a lawyer attached to Human Resources Centre in Kollupitiya.In spite of this background she is “presumed guilty until proved innocent” and languishes in Welikade.
The Tamil Speaking Womens’ Journalists Association of Sri Lanka has strongly condemned this as an act of discrimination against women journalists of the minority community. According to Ms Krishni Kandasamy, President, Tamil Speaking Womens’ Journalists Association of Sri Lanka ,this young talented journalist is described as “bright and dynamic” by her colleagues. The arrest has caused much distress to journalist colleagues.
Free media movement convenor Sunanda Deshapriya in a press release refers to the arrest of Sivaramya Sivanathan and observes that “journalists who didn’t have invitation cards were allowed to enter the conference and in general invitation cards were not asked to be produced at the entrance.”
“The only reason FMM could think of for asking Ms. Sivaramya for an offcial invitation was that she belongs to the minority Tamil community. FMM understands security concerns of the government in dangerously volatile situation developing in the country but would like to emphasis that discriminatory practices usually do more harm than good. ”
“FMM urge the government to look into this incident urgently and instruct the police to speed up the investigations and release Ms. Sivaramya Sivanathan if she is proved innocent.”
transCurrents feedback : editor@transcurrents.com
Contact DBS Jeyaraj : djeyaraj2005@yahoo.com
Entry Filed under: News, transCurrents
