Batticaloa was one of the venues for remembrance events held to mark the 15th death anniversary of slain journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga yesterday (08).
A photograph of ‘The Sunday Leader’ editor was garlanded and lamps lit before it at a memorial erected at Gandhi Park to the memory of murdered Sri Lankan journalists.
Participating Tamil journalists from media clubs in the eastern province demanded justice for their dead brethren.
Jesuit priest T. Jeevaraj said journalists were hampered in their duties due to the non-enforcement of the law against those responsible for the murder of journalists.
Out of 48 killed, as many as 32 were Tamil journalists, he said, urging the president, law enforcement officials and the judiciary to ensure justice for them.
44 journalists murdered or missing
According to Journalists for Democracy – Sri Lanka, 44 journalists had either been killed or made to disappear between 2004 and 2010.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe is yet to deliver justice for them, despite a promise given to do so, when he was the prime minister.
