Sri Lanka
Rally for justice in light of journalist attacksPosted Jan 26 2011
Sri Lankan journalists held a rally on Jan. 18 to call for justice for their colleagues, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists. January has been especially unfortunate for the country’s journalists. Attacks, deaths, bombing and disappearances have all occurred in the first month of 2011.
According to CPJ’s Impunity Index, Sri Lanka is “the fourth worst country in the world in terms of unsolved journalist murders.” One of the most prominent unsolved cases is the murder of journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga, who was killed in broad daylight two years ago.
Also, political cartoonist Prageeth Eknelygoda disappeared in January 2010. Among the journalists present at the rally was his family, according to CPJ.
In a letter on the CPJ website, his widow, Sonali Samarasinghe, a lawyer and journalist herself writes, “Lasantha Wickramatunga was a journalist, opinion maker, and activist, but firstly he was a citizen of Sri Lanka. A society that cannot hold responsible those who commit murder upon their own citizens is a failed society.”