The editors at The Sunday Leader say they are under threat. Last Thursday, October 22, Frederica Jansz, Editor-in-Chief of this newspaper and Munza Mushtaq, News Editor were both sent two hand written death threats by post. The two letters are identical — written in red ink and appear to have been posted on October 21.
Similar letters were received by late Editor-in-Chief of the The Sunday Leader who was shot by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles as he drove to work in the city suburbs on January 08, 2009.
On 28 September, a gang of unidentified people threatened her and tried to forcefully gain access to the property of female Journalist and media rights activist, Dileesha Abeysundera, who writes to the Sinhala language sister newspaper of The Sunday Leader. In June, Krishni Ifam, a Tamil reporter who works for media development NGO Internews was kidnapped from outside her home in the capital Colombo and held for a day by people claiming to be the police.
Sri Lanka is among the bottom 20 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. Sri Lanka jailed a Tamil journalist for 20 years under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act in September.
