Main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe blamed the government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) for the attack, as the facilities were located within the military's high security zone.

"The government wishes to condemn the statement by the opposition leader," Anura Yapa, the minister of media and the government spokesman told reporters.

The Free Media Movement (FMM) Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and International Press Institute (IPI) all condemning the act saying media freedom in Sri Lanka being terrorized and noted that the Morning Leader editor has been very critical of Asia Tribune website, which according to the editor, works hand in hand with the paramilitary Pillayaan Group. The paper, which has been critical of the government, was scheduled to reveal details of horse-trading to buy off parliamentarians, this week.

The IPI added Sri Lanka to its list of countries where media freedom is under fire because journalists were being targeted as the country's civil war has intensified.

The RSF also very concerned about the fate of proof reader Vadivel Nimalarajah of the Jaffna-based Tamil daily Uthayan, who has been missing since 17 November and Mr. Anthonypillai is 36 years old, distributor of Tamil Yarl Thinakkural, married and father of one child from Jaffna had been abducted in Jaffna on November 5th 2007.

“During the past two years twelve media personnel have been killed, with the Uthayan newspaper paying the highest price in terms of human life: five members of its staff have lost their lives in the service of journalism and the freedom of expression,” the press release from The National Press Council of Sri Lanka said.

Numerous Tamil journalists were targeted, abducted and murdered in Sri Lanka by the state armed forces and its paramilitary men continuously. The perpetrators of those crimes were never been brought to the books by the Sri Lankan authority, said a media personal in Colombo.

It is a dim prospect for not only for free press in Sri Lanka as very fundamental principles of democracy in Sri Lanka under attack. Civilians, journalists, aid workers, religious leaders and interlectuals are being targetted, attacked, abducted and killed at their will in the law-less Sri Lanka to silence them from expressing their democratic free views by the present government. Terror reigns among journalists in Sri Lanka and they are fleeing the country to save their lives, said another journalist in Colombo.

Sri Lanka is hard bent on pressing for a military victory over the Tamil Tigers and since 1972 the conflict has left at least eighty thousands people dead. Sri Lanka has been pronounced by media rights activists and right groups as the most dangerous place in the world for journalists to work.

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