{"id":58755,"date":"2012-11-04T19:45:51","date_gmt":"2012-11-04T19:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=58755"},"modified":"2012-11-06T22:22:03","modified_gmt":"2012-11-06T22:22:03","slug":"sri-lankan-editor-frederica-jansz-flees-sri-lanka-she-says-finally-i-feel-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-editor-frederica-jansz-flees-sri-lanka-she-says-finally-i-feel-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan Editor Frederica Jansz Flees Sri Lanka; ‘Finally I feel safe’ Says Jansz"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colombo Telegraph<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frederica Jansz<\/a><\/span>, who was sacked from her post<\/a><\/span> as Editor in Chief at\u00a0The Sunday Leader<\/a><\/span> in September this year is learnt to have left Sri\u00a0Lanka together with her two sons having been granted refuge by a\u00a0powerful nation currently pushing to hold the Sri Lankan government\u00a0accountable for possible war crimes and other human right abuses\u00a0including abuses of media freedoms and stifling the press.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Finally I feel safe. My kids are safe. The pressure, the persecution has been intense. It was a nightmare. I am thankful I got out alive - Jansz<\/p><\/div>\n

Jansz was sacked in September this year when The Sunday Leader was\u00a0purchased by the government who fronted a pro Rajapaksa stooge to\u00a0conclude the sale in the form of Asanga Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>. \u00a0The latter it is
\nlearnt insisted Jansz not carry articles critical of the “First\u00a0Family<\/a><\/span>” and then orchestrated a frivolous police complaint against\u00a0her<\/a><\/span>, insisting she continued to publish copy that were according to\u00a0Seneviratne, “malicious and slanderous” of President Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and his coterie of family holding government office.<\/p>\n

In the backdrop of what has been described by international media\u00a0organizations as an alarming trend<\/a><\/span> in stifling freedom of expression\u00a0and independent reportage, Frederica has left Sri Lanka after she came
\nunder increasing pressure and continued persecution by the\u00a0Rajapaksa dominated government.<\/p>\n

Frederica now joins dozens of other journalists who have fled Sri\u00a0Lanka since 2005 when Mahinda Rajapaksa took office as President.<\/p>\n

Following her termination from the newspaper the new management at The\u00a0Sunday Leader agreed to publish an apology<\/a><\/span> to the all powerful Defense\u00a0Secretary and brother to the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> for having
\npublished an article in July this year titled, ‘Gota Goes Berserk<\/a><\/span>.’\u00a0In which article Rajapaksa was placed on record having used foul\u00a0language on Jansz including threatening her with possible death.<\/p>\n

Frederica had since her termination confided to close associates that\u00a0she had been followed home twice by men on motorbikes as well as received a threatening phone call. \u00a0When Colombo Telegraph contacted and spoke\u00a0briefly with Jansz and asked if she had made a police complaint\u00a0she replied, “What is the point anymore? In Sri Lanka the police are\u00a0impotent in these cases.”<\/p>\n

Frederica was also facing further litigation initiated by Gotabaya\u00a0Rajapaksa when in July this year following the article ‘ Gota Goes\u00a0Berserk’ he revived a Contempt of Court action he filed in 2009 and\u00a0had laid by following her giving evidence in the White Flag case<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Frederica, according to confidantes had said she had been warned by\u00a0her lawyers<\/a><\/span> that there were moves to possibly impound her passport at the next court hearing scheduled for later this month. \u00a0She was also facing a
\njail term if the case was decided in favour of Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n

Frederica and her young family have since been moved to a safe\u00a0location under the auspices of a foreign government.<\/p>\n

Speaking from her new abode she told Colombo Telegraph, “Finally I\u00a0feel safe. \u00a0My kids are safe. The pressure, the persecution has been\u00a0intense. It was a nightmare. I am thankful I got out alive.”<\/p>\n

Jansz took over as Editor in Chief of The Sunday Leader following the\u00a0assassination of her predecessor Lasantha Wickrematunge<\/a><\/span> who was murdered while driving to work on January 8, 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":56483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,2375],"tags":[4941,1329,6146,2918,4990,6135,6147],"class_list":["post-58755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-stories","tag-asanga-seneviratne-bought-the-sunday-leader","tag-death-threat-to-sunday-leader-editor","tag-frederica-jansz-flees-sri-lanka","tag-gotabhaya-rajapaksa-sunday-leader-dogs-news","tag-sunday-leader-under-asanga-seneviratne-and-sakunthala-perera","tag-sunday-leader-under-the-new-management","tag-white-flag-case-and-frederica-jansz"],"yoast_head":"\nSri Lankan Editor Frederica Jansz Flees Sri Lanka; 'Finally I feel safe' Says Jansz - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-editor-frederica-jansz-flees-sri-lanka-she-says-finally-i-feel-safe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sri Lankan Editor Frederica Jansz Flees Sri Lanka; 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