Media groups say Sri Lanka threatens journalists

GENEVA (Reuters) - Media groups urged U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday to speak out in support of journalists in Sri Lanka who are facing "grave danger" after being labeled traitors by government officials.

A total of 31 organizations from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas signed the appeal over what they called the alarming situation facing media workers in Sri Lanka.

This had been created, they said, by statements linked to the government and the military, including one on the Defense Ministry website, labeling journalists critical of the conduct of the war against Tamil Tiger rebels as "enemies of the state".

That statement said the ministry would take "all necessary measures to stop this journalistic treachery", according to the text of the appeal, sent to Reuters in Geneva by the Brussels-based International News Safety Institute (INSI).

The groups signing the appeal -- which included the International Federation of Journalists and the International Press Institute -- said earlier this year Sri Lankan Army Commander Major-General Sarath Fonseka had described critical journalists as traitors.

Such statements, the appeal to Ban said, "risk encouraging those who have used extreme violence against journalists and other news professionals" in Sri Lanka.

In a report issued in December last year, INSI put Sri Lanka 14th in a table of 70 countries where journalists had been killed while trying to do their job.

"Journalists continue to work there in conditions of fear and harassment," the appeal said. The organizations called on Ban to work to persuade the government to withdrew the statements "and immediately stop all actions which undermine the independence and safety of the news community".

(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)