COLOMBO, Dec 25: Sri Lanka detained two foreign television journalists and 11 locals from a Tamil family they were filming in the island’s south, police said on Tuesday.

The two-member crew of France 24 were detained overnight at Ratgama, 105km south of the capital, after they were taken into custody by the military on Monday evening, a police official in the area said.

He said the duo were taken on Tuesday before a judge who ordered that they be handed over to the police Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) for further investigations.

Sri Lanka’s independent Free Media Movement (FMM) said they wanted the crew released immediately and accused the authorities of overreacting and suppressing the right to information.

A female journalist and TV cameraman from France 24 were filming a Tamil family visiting their detained relatives on Christmas Eve, the FMM said.

Police said they detained the two foreign nationals as well as 11 Tamils and their driver after the cameraman was accused of filming a military checkpoint outside the Boosa detention centre.

“This is another instance of the authorities overreacting on the people’s right to know, ignoring that the media has a right to report in a creative way on matters concerning arrests and detention.

“The FMM does not consider videoing a road block as a national security issue and expresses its serious concern of detaining a TV crew and a whole family on a minor incident,” the media rights group said.

The group noted that the government can detain suspects for 48 hours without being charged in line with tough emergency laws. There was no immediate comment from France 24.

The Boosa detention centre was reopened recently by the military in the wake of mass arrests of minority Tamils as part of a crackdown against separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

Boosa was known as a notorious torture centre when Marxists rebels were detained there in the late 1980s. International media rights activists have described Sri Lanka as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists to work in due to violence and censorship.—AFP