Those Who Killed Media Freedom Still At Large

Lasantha Wickrematunge and Thevis Guruge and Premakeerthi de Alwis and Richard de Zoysa and Mylvaganam Nimalarajan and Atputharajah Nadarajah

by Ashanthi  Warunasuriya-Sunday, January 31, 2016

We have been talking about media freedom for a long time now. Many a time, those in power had tried to intimidate journalists through abducting them, and by killing them. Some journalists escaped from this merciless treatment, fled the country seeking refuge overseas leaving their loved ones in Sri Lanka. They sacrificed their whole lives for the fight against injustice.

Freedom of the press in Sri Lanka is guaranteed by the Article 14(1) (a) of the Constitution, which gives every citizen “freedom of speech and expression and publication”. Despite this constitutional assurance, widespread suppression of media, particularly of those who are critical of the government is quite evident in the country. Of the 180 countries listed in the 2014 Press Freedom Index issued from the Reporters Without Borders, Sri Lanka is at 165th position.

According to Freedom House, during the civil war in the island, Sri Lankan journalists had no freedom at all to expose the true situation of the country let alone expressing their opinions. They had also reported at that time that Sri Lanka was one of the most dangerous destinations for a journalist to function. During this period, many journalists were killed, assaulted and made to disappear. Between 1999 and 2011, 25 journalists had been killed in the island. No accurate reports are available regarding murders, assaults and other forms of intimidation against the media during the war period in Sri Lanka. However some of them are as follows:

Thevis Guruge, the Chairman of the State-owned Independent Television Network (ITN), was killed on July 23, 1989. Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) was blamed for the murder.

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