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A memorial event was held in Jaffna this weekend, to mark the 8th anniversary since the killing of Tamil journalist Puniyamoorthy Sathiyamoorthy.
Mr Sathiyamoorthy was killed by a Sri Lankan artillery barrage inside the ‘No Fire Zone’ in February 2009, alongside thousands of other civilians during the final stages of the armed conflict. A journalist of the Vanni based Media House, he wrote the military column for the 'Eezhanaatham' daily and was reporting from inside the ‘No Fire Zone’ when Sri Lankan artillery shells landed in the area.
“Several Tamil media reports said Sathiyamoorthy did not die immediately,” said the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “They cited relatives who said a lack of proper medical attention contributed to his death.”
The killing was also condemned by the International Association of Tamil Journalists with the organisation’s President Anandhi Suriyaprakasam saying it “tragically underscores the extreme dangers for all journalists in Sri Lanka who try to report from the war zones or to offer a critical view of the conduct of the war”.
Also see an obituary from TamilNet here.