Sri Lanka: British High Commissioner condemns the attack on Diplomat and Media Personal

Colombo – The British High Commissioner in Colombo, Peter Hayes, Sri Lanka's main media rights group, The Free Media Movement (FMM) and five other media rights groups condemned an assault on a journalist and a senior British High Commission officer and demanded that the attackers be brought to justice.

An unknown gang attacked a British Diplomat in Colombo along with a local journalist. Both of them were seriously injured in the attack and admitted to the Colombo hospital.

Political officer Mahendra Ratnaweera and reporter Namal Perera were traveling by car together when they were stopped and attacked with batons and clubs. Mr Perera told reporters that he had locked the car doors but the attackers had smashed the windows.

The incident came less than a month after Sri Lanka's hawkish defense ministry launched scathing attacks against journalists critical of its war against Tamil rebels, calling them "enemies of the state."

The FMM said it will treat the latest incident as a "litmus test" of the effectiveness of the high-powered ministerial committee appointed by President Mahinda Rajapakse to prevent attacks against journalists.

"We will be closely monitoring the actions taken by the government to bring the perpetrators to justice in this latest criminal act," the group said.

"This was an attempted abduction," said the spokesman for the media association, Sunanda Deshapriya. "What this attack shows once again is that there is no space for critical reporting in the country."

The British High Commissioner in Colombo, Peter Hayes condemned the attack and called on authorities to thoroughly investigate the incident and bring the culprits to justice.

"I condemn in the strongest terms this despicable act on innocent civilians," Hayes said in a statement. Stressed he was demanding a full investigation.

In Sri Lanka, at least 20 journalists have been most violently assassinated while many dozens of journalists assaulted, abducted or made to disappear as most of those victims were ethnic Tamil media personals since 2004 almost all were assassinated in the government-controlled areas and no one has been brought to justice in connection with the deaths.