Opposition leader questioned whether new terrorist groups are formed in Sri Lanka

Ranil Wickramasinghe, MP, was speaking in parliament on Tuesday after his party raised a question over the recent arrests of journalists in Sri Lanka.

Journalists of Lanka Irida newspaper, Daya Nettasinghe, Ravindra Pushpakumara and Shalika Wimalasena were arrested by the police in the southern town of Deniyaya on 02 September.

"Which terrorist organisation do these journalists belong? Is it LTTE? Is the Taliban in Sri Lanka? Or is there any other terrorist organisation?" Mr. Wickramasinghe questioned.

Government response

Responding, Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa told the parliament that police have arrested three suspicious persons later found to be journalists following an alert by owners of a plantation in Deniyaya.

He stressed that the government has not taken any step to curb media freedom in Sri Lanka.

	Tissainayagam is the first journalist to be sentenced under PTA

The three journalists were released on personal and surety bail by the Morawaka magistrate on Tuesday, Lanka Irida editor Chandana Sirimalwatta told BBC Sandeshaya.

Irida Lanka is a Sinhala weekly affiliated to opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

Police spokesman, DIG Nimal Mediwaka, earlier told BBC Sandeshaya that the journalists have tried to gather information of the movements of VVIPs.

"Investigations have revealed that they have questioned the workers at a bungalow on the movements of the president and defence secretary," he alleged.

South Asia Media Solidarity Network

The arrest has been condemned by local and international media freedom organisations.

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), a recently formed group of media workers operating from Europe, said in a statement that the three were detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Investigations have revealed that they have questioned the workers at a bungalow on the movements of the president and defence secretary Police spokesman

"Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) are of the view that this is another act of suppressing the media freedoms by the present regime and strongly condemn it," it said.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued after a meeting in Kathmandu on 6-7 September, South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) has urged Sri Lanka government to repeal the PTA.

“Till necessary legislative changes are made, we demand that all cases registered under the law, which have had a chilling effect on the right to free speech, be kept in abeyance,” it said.

A court in Sri Lanka recently sentenced prominent Tamil journalist JS Tissainayagam to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment.

He is the first journalist to be sentenced under PTA and it is the harshest sentence meted out by courts to any journalist in Sri Lanka.