Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has included the editor of the Tamil daily Uthayan in its list of “100 Information Heroes”.
The first such list, created by RSF to mark World Press Freedom Day, included a hundred journalists from around the world, for helping to promote the freedom “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”, RSF said.
Mr MV Kaanamylnathan had 50 years of “tough experience in journalism”, the rights organisation said, adding that dozens of Uthayan journalists were killed in the armed conflict in Sri Lanka.
“Five years after the official end of the conflict, Kaanamylnathan, who himself escaped an attack in 2001, and his newspaper are still making waves. Last year, a series of articles on land seizures by the Sri Lankan army was followed by a brutal attack on the paper’s offices by six masked men.” RSF said.
“World Press Freedom Day, which Reporters Without Borders helped to create, should be an occasion for paying tribute to the courage of the journalists and bloggers who constantly sacrifice their safety and sometimes their lives to their vocation,” said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire.