By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – One of Sri Lanka’s most prominent newspaper editors, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead on Sunday.  The death of Lasantha Wickramatunga demonstrates the Sri Lankan government’s failure to investigate these murders and protect these journalists, urge several human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders.

“Sri Lanka prides itself as a functioning democracy. Yet media freedom, a vital pillar of democracy, has increasingly come under attack,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should not take its recent military victories as a signal that it can stifle dissent.”

Wickramatunga was editor and senior journalist of the Sunday Leader. He was shot on his way to work in Colombo by two unidentified men on motorcycles.  He was rushed to the hospital where he died shortly thereafter.

Wickramatunga was known notably for his in-depth investigations into corruption of the government.  He was often a target of threats and lawsuits for libel.

“Mr Wickramatunga’s death is a serious blow for press freedom because he was one of the few reporters in the country who could write authoritatively about the government and Tamil Tigers’ conduct of a brutal war which has claimed thousands of lives over the years but has been consistently under-reported by much of the world’s media,” said Priyath Liyanage, editor of the BBC’s Sinhala service.

Human rights organizations blame the government directly for the deaths of journalists and repression of speech.

“Sri Lanka has lost one of its more talented, courageous and iconoclastic journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said. “President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his associates and the government media are directly to blame because they incited hatred against him and allowed an outrageous level of impunity to develop as regards violence against the press. Sri Lanka’s image is badly sullied by this murder, which is an absolute scandal and must not go unpunished.”

According to Reporters Without Borders’ 2008 press freedom index, Sri Lanka was ranked 165th out of 173 countries. This was the lowest ranking of any democratic country.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Grievous Blow to Sri Lankan Media – 8 January 2009

Human Rights Watch – Sri Lanka:  Attacks Highlight Threat to Media – 8 January 2009

Reporters Without Borders – Outrage at Fatal Shooting of Newspaper in Colombo – 8 January 2009