Almost seven years after the assassination of the Tamil journalist, Dharmaratnam Sivaram, known also as Taraki, the perpetrators and the commissioners of his murder, are yet to be brought to justice.
The trial of the man accused of murdering Dharmaratnam Sivaram, scheduled to take place Thursday, was postponed after the State Counsel informed the court that six witnesses failed to attend, reported BBC Sinhala.
The six, includes two policemen.
The trial has been rescheduled for the 25th April.
Sivaram, one of the founding editors of Tamilnet, was abducted on the 28th April 2005. His body was found the following day in a high security zone.
The same year saw the murder of two further Tamil media workers - S. Suhirtharajan, Trincomalee correspondent for Sudar Oli, a Tamil daily and Mrs. Relanki Selvarajah, Tamil broadcaster.
In an macabre act of brazen impunity, Selvarajah Rajivarman, a journalist from the Tamil daily, Uthayan, was gunned down in the middle Jaffna town on the second anniversary of Sivaram's death - a warning to all who dare follow.
The killings took place within a long-standing culture of intimidation, abduction and murder of Tamil media workers, that continues to this very day.
Their deaths, too often occuring in heavily militarised or high security zones to be sheer coincidence, have been met with a systematic failure of justice and endemic impunity.
The Sri Lankan state's clamp down on media freedom and the repeated unexpected, brutal demise of those who speak out against the ruling regime, has not only affected the Tamil nation.
Sinhala journalists who have dared express anti-government views have been silenced, through abductions and killings. The murdered editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, who chillingly predicted his own fate is a poignant example.
Nevertheless, the killing of Tamil journalists, and moreover the brazen impunity with which it is carried out, goes beyond media freedom and an individual's right to free speech.
The persecution of Tamil journalists is an act to silence an entire nation.
See related articles:
The logic in Sri Lanka's disappearances by Jan Jananayagam of TAG (Tamils Against Genocide) (29 Dec 2010)
War by other means by Vino Kanapathipillai (12 May 2010)
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