Aust denies asylum for Sri Lanka editor

THE sacked editor of an anti-government newspaper in Sri Lanka says her political asylum claim has been rejected by Australia despite threats to her life at home.

Frederica Jansz, whose services were terminated by the new owners of the Sunday Leader two weeks ago, said on Friday Canberra rejected her application on the grounds that she was not out of Sri Lanka at the time of making the claim.

She took over the Sunday Leader after its founding editor Lasantha Wickrematunga was gunned down by unidentified attackers in January 2009. He was a staunch critic of the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Asked if she would appeal the Australian government rejection conveyed to her last month, she said: "I was told that this decision is not reversible." She said she applied to Australia because she feared for her life at home.

"They say I did not qualify under their criteria for a persecuted person because I did not fulfil this requirement that I should have been abroad at the time of making the application," she said.

The Australian High Commission (embassy) in Colombo declined comment.

In July, Jansz publicly accused the president's brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse of using "most foul, lewd and disgusting language" towards her, when she tried to verify a report alleging irregularities in bringing a puppy from Switzerland to Colombo for his wife aboard a Sri Lankan aircraft.

She wrote in a report that Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is also the defence secretary, said "Ninety per cent of the people in Sri Lanka wanted the editor of this newspaper (Jansz) dead," an accusation which was promptly denied by the government.

Jansz told AFP in Colombo that she lodged the asylum application before the latest exchange she had with the defence secretary.

Last month, she said she was sacked after she resisted demands from the new owner of the Sunday Leader to water down criticism of the president and his family.

The paper was launched by late Wickrematunga with his brother Lal Wickrematunga 18 years ago, building it into one of the most vocal anti-establishment newspapers in the country.

Media rights groups accuse Sri Lanka's government of trying to silence dissenting voices in a country where 17 journalists and media workers have been killed in the past decade. No one has been brought to justice for the killings.

News.com.au

Edited October 6, 201213 yr by SUNDHAL