Sri Lanka to Re-open Investigations on Journalists’ Attacks
Posted on May 30th, 2015

Courtesy  The New Indian Express

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said he wants to re-open investigations into all past murders and disappearances of journalists. “As the new government, we want to re-open investigations on all disappearances, murders and other challenges faced by the media personnel in the recent past,” Sirisena said addressing an event here last night to mark the disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda.

Eknaligoda went missing in January, 2010 while he was working in the opposition election campaign in the then presidential election.

“We all remember the difficult times they faced,” said Sirisena, who pledged to restore full freedom of media when he challenged his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa in January’s presidential election.

Rajapaksa’s rule became noted for the intimidation of journalists.

Several journalists fled the country while editor of the pro-opposition Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickrematunga was murdered in a street here in broad daylight in January, 2009.

During Rajapaksa’s military campaign, which crushed the LTTE, Sri Lanka was dubbed as one of the unsafest places to practice journalism.

Although investigations were initiated on attacks on journalists, they have not resulted in anyone being prosecuted.

In the latest World Press Freedom Index rankings issues in April this year, Sri Lanka was ranked 165 out of 180 countries.

One Response to “Sri Lanka to Re-open Investigations on Journalists’ Attacks”

  1. NeelaMahaYoda Says:

    So Champika Ranawaka and Sarath Fonseka will soon be in trouble.
    එක්නැලිගොඩට මරු කැඳවූ චම්පික ගැන ලියූ ලිපිය…
    මෙහි දැක්වෙන්නේ 2009 දෙසැම්බර් 08 දින ලංකාඊනිවුස් වෙබ් අඩවිය මගින් පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක මහතා පිලිබද පලකල ලිපියකි. මේ ලිපිය අද දෙවියකු මෙන් සලකන පාඨලී මහතාට අදාල වේද? නැතිනම් එදා කීවේ බොරුද? අද කියන්නේ බොරුද? නැතිනම් ඇත්ත බොරු කෙසේ වෙතත් ලාබය සදහා කට්ටිය කඩේ යනවාද? රට බෙදන්නට සැරසෙනවාද? ලංකා ඊනිවුස්ට අද පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක මහතා මහත්මයකු වී ඇත. මේ වෙනස ඇයි?
    ඔබත් ලිපිය කියවා තීරණය කරන්න.
    මෙම ලිපියෙහි කිසිම ස්ථානයක කිසිම වෙනසක් සිදුකර නොමැති බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න. එය ඒ ආකාරයෙන්ම ඇත. ලිපිය මෙතැන් සිට.
    https://maruwaxx.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/කරුණාරත්න-පරණවිතාගේ-චම්ප

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