Iqbal Athas

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Iqbal Athas is a Sri Lankan defence journalist for the Sunday Times and he also contributes to Jane's Defence Weekly and CNN. He was threatened for his investigative reporting which undercovered defence scandals in the purchase of the arms by Sri Lankan Defence personal particurly the Sri Lankan Airforce.[1][2][3]

Contents

[edit] Career as Journalist

Iqbal Athas has been an investigative reporter on defence issues and has faced several threats to his life due to this. On February 1998 armed men entered his house and threatened him and his family as he had written about corruption in the Army and in 2002 during the ceasefire two Sri Lankan airforce officers were convicted for the attack.[4][5]

[edit] Article on Defence deal

Iqbal Athas exposed corruption involved in the purchase of second hand MiG-27 from Ukraine. Sri Lanka ordered a probe into the deal.[6] Security given to Iqbal Athas was withdrawn after this article was published.[7][8][9] The ruling SLFP party staged a protest near his house calling on him not to reveal sensitive information. International Media have appealed for restoration of security.[10]Journalist W. G. Gunaratne who translated Iqbal Athas’s articles into Sinhala for the newspaper Lankadeepa has received death threats.[11]

[edit] See also

Sampath Lakmal de Silva

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sri Lanka journalist threatened
  2. ^ Human Rights Bulletin on Sri Lanka
  3. ^ Latest news from Sri Lanka in Sinhala, English and Tamil - (Lankaenews)
  4. ^ Sri Lankan air force officers jailed BBC
  5. ^ Concerns over safety of journalist Iqbal-Athas
  6. ^ The Sunday Times investigation reveals shocking double-deals and wheeler-dealings
  7. ^ Journalist and family under threat after withdrawal of security
  8. ^ PM announces select committee will probe multi-billion rupee transaction
  9. ^ MiG deal: All parties agree on select committee probe
  10. ^ Sri Lankan journalist, still in jeopardy, says government never offered protection
  11. ^ Life of journalist Iqbal Athas in danger after his revelations about purchase of Ukrainian Migs European and US embassies urged to protect threatened journalist

[edit] External links

[edit] Further Reports

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