The United Nations today revealed that it was unaware of the petition handed over by Sandya Eknaligoda, wife of missing journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, to the UN office in Colombo on January 24. We’re not aware of a petition having been handed in, Martin Nesirky, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said.

Nesirky added that, “We’ll check again, but the latest that I had was that we are not aware of a petition having been handed in.” 

Excerpt of UN Noon Briefing;

 

Question:  And then just on Sri Lanka, I wanted to… if you can… there is… recently there is a burning down of a publication, Lankaenews, and various people said this is a crackdown on freedom of speech.  There is also a petition that was delivered, I believe, to Mr. [Neil] Buhne in Colombo, seeking UN help to look into the case of a disappeared journalist for a year, Prageeth Ekneligoda, and I am wondering, that one has been sort of pending for a while, is there some… What is the UN’s response to what seems to many to be a crackdown or certainly increase of danger for journalists in Sri Lanka?

 

Spokesperson:  Well, both of those, again, are questions that you sent by e-mail and should we have anything further, then we’ll let you know.  But what I can tell you, the key point is that, freedom of the media is vital and journalists should be able to carry out their work without fear of attack or being harassed to do the work that they need to do.

 

Question:  On this petition by Prageeth, turned in by his wife, has it yet been confirmed that it was received by the UN in Colombo, and what happens with such petitions for UN assistance?

 

Spokesperson:  Look, we checked.  We’re not aware of a petition having been handed in.  We’ll check again, but the latest that I had was that we are not aware of a petition having been handed in.