01.03.2009

Press Release.

TULF  DEPLORES  THE  MANNER  OF  ARREST  OF  THE 

SUDAROLI  EDITOR.

The TULF regrets deeply the manner in which Mr. Vidyatharan Editor-in-Chief of Sudaroli, a National Tamil Daily, had been taken into custody.  News papers are the watch-dogs of the Nation.  They have a sacred duty to bring out all news, they gather with difficulty, some of which under grave risk to their lives, to the knowledge of the Public.  The Police, as peace officers should give the Editors and Journalists all protection and assistance and should not act in any way to disrupt their work.  It may be that all, what they write, are not palatable to us.  Yet the truth must come out and unbiased reports are much welcomed.  We should not forget the fact that the editor has a sacred duty to maintain strict secrecy of the sources of information.

The police have a duty to act impartially.  They are Peace Officers with a duty cast on them to treat everybody equally and with care and respect.  We are not unaware of the risk and embarrassment they face at times.  A recent Indian report said that a police officer committed suicide by setting himself ablaze, unable to bear the shame and to face the embarrassment caused to him by some Lawyers who, while demonstrating, assaulted him and cut him with a blade at several places.

What happened to Mr. Vidyatharan should not happen again to another person, even to the worst criminal.  Mr. Vidyatharan is a respectable gentleman and the Editor-in-Chief of a National Tamil daily.  One can understand if a certain amount of force had been used if he resisted arrest or made on effort to escape.  But in this instance Mr. Vidyatharan works in his office and is available most of the time and would have responded to a phone call from the police, if he was wanted by them.  It is a shame that he had been treated in this shabby manner.  I am unable to believe that our police behaved in this manner with the editor of a paper.  No police officer should be permitted to bring disrepute to the entire Sri Lankan Police Force and therefore strict action should be taken against the officers who had no moral justification for arresting him at a funeral of one of his very close relations.  This act had been taken by his relations as a great insult, caused to the person about to commence his last journey. 

V. Anandasangaree,

President – TULF.