General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association was abducted, assaulted and dumped

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says at least eleven Sri Lankan journalists fled the country past year - accounting for a quarter of all such cases worldwide last year.

The group says Sri Lankan reporters and editors faced severe retribution, including violence, for critical coverage of government military operations against the Tamil Tigers.

“Sri Lanka is losing its best journalists to unchecked violence and the resulting conditions of fear and intimidation that are driving writers and editors from their homes,” said Joel Simon, CPJ executive director.

Sri Lanka is losing its best journalists to unchecked violence and the resulting conditions of fear and intimidation CPJ executive director

“This is a sad reality in countries throughout the worlds where governments allow attacks on the press to go unpunished.”

The Sri Lankan government has not responded to the report; in the past it's said that the reason for journalists' leaving the country was economic.

Nearly 400 journalists have been forced into exile worldwide since 2001, says CPJ.

It adds that more than 330 of them remain in exile today.