• Says photojournalist Kumanan Kanapathipillai is a ‘journalist-at-risk’

A group of activists and rights groups have condemned alleged acts of harassment against Tamil photojournalist Kumanan Kanapathipillai from Mullaitivu, who they claim is subjected to surveillance, and intimidation by local authorities.

A statement signed by over 140 parties said harassment of Kumanan has been continuing for many years, prompting several international human rights organisations to classify him as a ‘journalist-at-risk’.

The group, in a statement released last weekend said: “In 2020, a group of men attacked Kumanan and another journalist while they were covering the illegal smuggling of trees. In 2024, the Counter-Terrorism Investigation Division (CTID) visited Kumanan’s parents and interrogated his associates. 

The harassment reached a crescendo on 17 August, when the CTID interrogated Kumanan for seven hours, framing his photojournalism as work ‘against the government’ and a ‘terrorist’ activity. On 26 September, during the United Nations’ Committee on Enforced Disappearances’ review of Sri Lanka in Geneva, a government representative made a statement justifying their harassment of Kumanan by alluding to suspicions about his involvement in financial crimes and terrorism.”

Reiterating that the Government is responsible for the actions of security agencies and that it has the duty to subject them to civilian scrutiny and ensure that they do not violate the rights of citizens in the guise of safeguarding national security, the statement added: “In order to accomplish this, the government would have to respect constitutional safeguards, the rule of law and due process. Kumanan’s treatment indicates to the public, and particularly the Tamil community, that it is business as usual for state structures which are repudiating ‘system change’. 

Such actions of state entities will undermine the credibility of the government and increase the mistrust of the Tamil community in state structures.”

Activists and rights groups called upon the Sri Lankan Government to immediately cease the surveillance, harassment, and intimidation, stop weaponising the law to label journalists terrorists for practicising their profession, respect constitutionally-protected rights, and end the misinformation campaign against them.

They also urged the international community to impress upon the Government the importance of taking on board and implementing the aforementioned requests and pay increased attention to the human rights situation in the north-east, particularly the treatment of Tamil-speaking journalists and human rights activists.