TV reporter hacked to death in Jaffna

COLOMBO: A journalist of a private television network and his friend have been hacked to death in Sri Lanka's war-torn Jaffna peninsula.

36-year-old P Devakumaran, who worked for Shakti TV, MTV and Sirasa TV, was reportedly returning home on his motorcycle with a friend when he was hacked to death at Navanthurai in Jaffna last evening by an unidentified gang, media watch group Free Media Movement (FMM) said.

The other slain person was identified as Mahendran Varadan.

Devakumaran is the ninth journalist to have been killed in Jaffna since 2006, FMM said.

The channel staffers are in a mourning and sporting black band on Thursday.

Police said they were investigating the killings.

Devakumaran, a resident of Vaddukoddai, Jaffna, is married for one year and worked for the private channels for nearly three years.

Three more journalists or media workers have also been abducted in the town over the last two years, the FMM said in a statement.

"It is with sickeningly increasing frequency that we are compelled to ask the government to take concrete measures to halt the killing, assault and intimidation of journalists in
Sri Lanka," it said.

Jaffna, the main town on the embattled northern peninsula has been fully liberated from the LTTE.

The FMM said none of the disappearances, abductions or murders of media workers have been probed and the perpetrators brought to justice.

"Not a single disappearance, abduction or murder of a journalist / media worker has been investigated that has brought those responsible to book. We are fearful that investigations into Devakumaran's murder will also suffer a similar fate", the statement said.

"Devakumaran's death must be investigated urgently, meaningfully and impartially. The repugnant impunity that aids and abets violence against journalists and media personnel must come to an end," the FMM said.

On May 22 this year, Keith Noyahr, a deputy editor of The Nation weekly, was abducted and severely beaten.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had ordered an inquiry into the incident involving Noyahr.