Media groups accuse Sri Lanka of post-poll attacks

International media rights groups accused the Sri Lankan government of unleashing attacks against journalists after a bitterly contested presidential election.

The Paris-based Reporters without Borders asked President Mahinda Rajapakse to end arrests and what it called intimidation of journalists working for privately owned as well as foreign media.

"This wave of post-election violence could cast a lasting stain on the start of President Rajapakse's second term and bodes ill for the political climate during the coming years," said the watchdog, also known as Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF). It said a political reporter disappeared two days before the vote while another editor of an anti-government newspaper had been arrested.

RSF urged the government to deploy more police to the search for reporter and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda, who has been missing since January 24.

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