COLOMBO: A Tamil woman journalist, held in custody for four months under the prevention of terrorism act, was released on Thursday after being produced in the Colombo Magistrate Courts and cleared of charges of terrorism.

Twenty-five-year-old Munusamy Parameswary, a journalist with a Sinhala language newspaper, based in Colombo was taken in by the military on Nov 22 and later kept under arrest on suspicion of helping the LTTE and a suspected female suicide bomber. The release of the journalist, who had written articles on the humanitarian situation in the war torn north east, comes after extensive lobbying by local and international media rights groups.

Following the government’s intensified crack down on terrorism, several journalists, including those belonging to the country’s majority Sinhalese community were taken in for questioning by the military under the Prevention of Terrorism Act which was re-enforced last year.