The Jaffna Press Club marked World Press Freedom Day with a commemoration event on Monday, to remember the Tamil journalists who have been killed in Sri Lanka.
Journalists lit candles and laid flowers in tribute to their murdered colleagues.
Press freedom has been a worrying concern on the island where Tamil journalists have faced reprisals for speaking out against rights abuses. They have frequently found themselves targeted with surveillance, threats, acts of violence, and even death. According to Together Against Genocide, from 2004 to 2009, over 48 journalists and media workers were reported killed, 41 of whom were Tamil.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) highlighted that after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in 2019, "there was a surge in cases of police harassment of journalists, including raids, interrogations and acts of intimidation, for all sorts of reasons. The issue of impunity for crimes of violence against journalists continues to dog the press freedom situation on the island."
Sri Lanka is currently ranked 127th out of 180 countries in RSF's World Press Freedom Index.
Today is #WorldPressFreedomDay #SriLanka is currently ranked 127/180 countries on the 2020 World Press Freedom Index by @RSF_inter
Here is #lka ranked among the other @SaarcSec countries
Find out more: https://t.co/n5IAMIdBsi pic.twitter.com/pJZIWtrxmz
— The Media Analysis (@verite_tma) May 3, 2020
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