Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

14th year commemoration of budding Tamil journalist, Nilakshan

The 14th anniversary event of Sahathevan Nilakshan, a 22-year-old budding Tamil journalist who was shot and killed by suspected Sri Lankan military intelligence personnel on 1 August 2007, took place at Jaffna Press Club on Sunday.

Wreaths were laid and candles were lit in front of Nilakshan’s photo during the commemorative event. 

Sahathevan Nilakshan, a media student at the Media Resources Training Centre at University of Jaffna and editor of Charalam Magazine and former chairman of the Jaffna Student Council, was at his home on 1 August 2007, when so-called unidentified gunmen stormed his home at around 5 a.m. and shot him dead in the presence of his parents in Kokkuvil. The killing occurred while the Jaffna District was on lockdown due to military-imposed curfew, and the city’s streets were heaving with troops.

The mother of Nilakshan once mentioned that the motive of the murders was that they did not approve of her son’s attendance at a remembrance event of Taraki Sivaram, a prominent Tamil journalist who was kidnapped and murdered in Colombo in 2005, around the time of Nilakshan’s killing. 

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.