of Tamil Eelam erupted again in the north, censorship was introduced on reporting about military operations in that area. Although the state of emergency and the censorship of reports of military operations in the north places constraints on journalists, the State party states that it has no information about journalists being harassed in connection with war reporting. 4.3 In view of the author's statements and documentary evidence, the State party does not doubt that the author is a photographer and that he took photographs from 1990 onwards, whether or not instructed to do so by various political parties, of victims of human rights violations and that these photographs were published in various newspapers. The State party also considers it plausible that the author was in fact abducted because of these activities. 4.4 The State party wishes to draw the attention of the Committee to the discrepancies between the arguments and statements on which the communication is based and the statements made by the author in the initial domestic proceedings. In the domestic proceedings the author consistently stated that he had been abducted in March 1991 and held captive for 15 days. It was not until after the domestic proceedings had been concluded that the author stated, through Amnesty International, that the abduction and alleged torture had taken place not in March 1991 but on 8 October 1992. The author has not explained this inconsistency, although it is important for an assessment of his account. Had he been abducted in 1991, it would be curious that it was not until 8 October 1992 that men approached him and urged him to close his studio. In any event, the author has not supplied any information about the period between March 1991 and 8 October 1992. His explanation for this, namely that he had been unable to communicate adequately due to the absence of a Sinhalese interpreter, is not credible. The author's national case file makes it clear that his command of English is sufficient for him to have been able to supplement his story accordingly. 4.5 Furthermore, when the author lost his appeal he also changed the statement he had made during the domestic proceedings that he did not decide to leave Sri Lanka until May 1993. He apparently stated to Amnesty International that he had already decided to leave his country after his alleged abduction on 8 October 1992. He has not supplied an adequate explanation for this inconsistency either. In the State party's opinion, the author probably changed his story to make it more logically consistent. 4.6 In addition, the State party points out that from the moment of his release in October 1992 until the date of his departure in May 1993, the author was able to avoid any further problems by moving to a different part of the country. The State party submits that it does not have enough information to ascertain whether the author was obliged to do this work in secret, as he maintains. Finally, the State party argues that the author's photographic activity related to exposing the misdeeds of the previous United National Party regime, which would not put him at risk of persecution by the present Government. 4.7 As to the assessment of the medical evidence supplied by the author, the State party notes that the medical certificate of 11 December 1995 stated that the violence described by the author might have caused the pain in his shoulders and back from which he was suffering. The State party also refers to the medical examination conducted by the medical research team of Amnesty International after the domestic proceedings had been formally concluded, noting that while the physical examination revealed a variety of abnormalities consistent with the type of torture the author had described, the author did not satisfy the criteria for a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress syndrome, and although he might have suffered from this syndrome in the past he had managed to develop effective ways of coping with it. 4.8 Lastly, the State party argues that several of the individual factors that the Committee has deemed to be of decisive importance in other communications it has dealt with play little or no role in the present one, such as the ethnic origin or political activities of the individual concerned. In the present case the author did 91