Police
spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said Bennett Rupasinghe, the editor of
LankaeNews.com, was arrested on accusations he was behind the threatening
another man.
Sunil
Jayasekara of the group Free Media Movement said the arrest was made on
questionable grounds and is an attempt to silence dissenting media.
LankaeNews
has been target of a number of threats and attacks in recent years.
A
columnist for the website has been missing for more than a year. The websits’s
office was set on fire earlier this year, prompting Rupasinghe to go public
saying he suspected a government hand in the attack.
Jayakody
said the man who complained of threats is a brother of a suspect arrested in
connection with that arson.
The man was
threatened by two men and later by a caller, Jayakody said.
Jayasekara
said he suspected the arrest was made to deflect the allegations the government
is behind the fire.
“The
arrest has been made on questionable grounds,” Jayasekara said. “This is an attempt
to silence critical media.” Most Sri Lankan journalists exercise
self-censorship after a series of threats, attacks, abductions and killings of
reporters in recent years.
Amnesty
International says at least 14 Sri Lankan media workers have been killed since
2006, and no arrests have been made in their killings.
