2009-06-01 18:12:03 -

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - A Sri Lankan press freedom campaigner and government critic was abducted and assaulted while returning from work Monday.
Poddala Jayantha, the secretary of Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association, said he was pushed into a vehicle by a gang that beat him severely, cut his hair and beard and dropped him by the roadside.
A passer-by brought him to the hospital.
Dr. Hector Weerasinghe of Colombo National Hospital said Jayantha's injuries are not life threatening.
Police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara confirmed the assault and said authorities don't know who was behind the attack on Jayantha, who had long accused the government of using threats to silence criticism in the media. No arrests have been made.

Journalists and media workers have been subject to violence and threats through the years of the island's civil war that ended last month.
According to Amnesty International, at least 14 journalists and staff at news outlets have been killed by suspected government paramilitaries and rebels since the beginning of 2006.
Others have been detained, tortured or have disappeared. It says 20 more have fled the country because of death threats.