Officials of the US Embassy in Colombo had visited the Uthayan office in Jaffna to gather information about issues faced by journalists in the North.

Andrew Mann met with E Saravanabavan, a TNA Parliamentarian and the proprietor of Uthayan, to discuss intimidation and threats faced by journalism in Jaffna, a journalist at the Uthayan had told Tamil Guardian news service on Thursday.

However, the matters that were discussed during the meeting were not disclosed to media. The reason for the fact finding visit by the US Embassy officials is still obscure. The US has already sponsored two resolutions against Sri Lanka at UN Human Rights Council sessions over accountability issues and violations of human rights in the country

Over the past few years, Uthayan newspaper office has come under attacks on numerous occasions. Staff members of the newspaper had told media that they had been attached not only by the Sri Lankan military, but also by Tamil militants. The Uthayan office came under the most serious attack in 2006, three years before the end of war.

Uthayan was founded in 1985 and is published from Jaffna. Its sister newspapers is the Colombo based Sudar Oli and both papers openly support what they term as “political autonomy” of Tamils in the North. Uthayan was the only newspaper published from Jaffna which did not cease publication due to the three decade long conflict in Sri Lanka.