Sri Lanka ranked fourth amongst states ‘Getting Away With Murder’, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said this week. (see the 2011 Impunity Index)
Sri Lanka fourth comes after Iraq, Somalia and the Phillipines. (Philippines ranks higher due to a single incident – the massacre of 32 journalists and media workers in 2009.)
Sri Lanka ranks higher than Afghanistan, Mexico and Colombia.
On Sri Lanka, CPJ pointed out that the repeated lack of adequate investigation or arrest of suspects left "persistent questions as to whether authorities have been complicit in some of the crimes."
Although the want of an effective rule of law in Sri Lanka has been greatly highlighted and criticised of late, it is not confined to Rajapakse's presidency. The intimidation, abduction and killing of journalists, particularly Tamil journalists, has been the order of the day for consecutive governments.
See letter, dated 24/11/1999 by 'Canadian Journalists for Free Expression' to then President Chandrika Kumaratunga, expressing concern over the killing of journalists and the censoring of the media during her
See also our earlier post this week, 'Remembering Nadesan'
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