Sri Lanka's press freedom ranking has plummeted by 15 positions to 150, down from 135 in the previous year, according to the annual release of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2024 World Press Freedom Index. The index compares press freedom across 180 countries and territories. 

Jaffna Press Club called on Sri Lanka's authorities to "stop the war on journalists" in a protest to mark World Press Freedom Day. 

Tamil livestock farmers in Mayilathamadu and Madhavanai, Batticaloa, who are protesting state-sponsored Sinhalese settler violence, alleged that they were threatened by a group affiliated with paramilitary leader and Rajapaksa ally, Pillayan. 

Sri Lanka’s controversial truth and reconciliation mechanism, the Interim Secretariat for the Truth and Reconciliation Mechanism (ISTRM), which has been roundly criticised by international experts and Tamil civil society, was presented before high-ranking Sri Lankan military officials, Sri Lanka’s police officials, and members of the Sinhala Buddhist clergy.

File photograph: Ravikaran joined protesters to block the illegal installation of a Buddha statue at Kurunthurmalai, Mullaitivu, in June 2022. 

A senior Australian military official boasted that not a single boat of asylum seekers looking to leave from Sri Lanka to Australia had been intercepted in over a year, despite Tamils continuing to flee the island in the wake of ongoing rights abuses.

The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) has been accused of corruption and favouring trade union members when selecting beneficiaries for houses constructed through an Indian grant.

A report in the Daily Mirror quoted several sources as telling the newspaper that they faced interference and “tremendous pressure” when allocating beneficiaries for the homes.

Today marks the 42nd birthday of Isaipriya, a famed Tamil newsreader that was executed by the Sri Lankan military in 2009.

Shoba, better known by her nom de plume Isaipriya, was just 27 years old when she was killed.

A regular figure as a newsreader and telecaster, she was a well known and much loved across the Tamil homeland and the large Tamil diaspora. She presented the news on TTN and featured in the LTTE’s Oliveechchu videos that were distributed around the world.

The Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santhosh Jha told reporters in Batticaloa that the ferry service between Kankesanthurai and Nagapattinam which was revived after 40 years and suddenly halted again, will resume later this month.

Excavation work commenced at a mass grave in Pungudutivu this week after construction workers found several human skeletal remains during the construction of a warehouse.

Sri Lankan police officers and the local magistrate watched as forensic officers began their excavation, unearthing several human skeletal remains.