Violence Silences Voices of Sri Lankan Journalists

"Journalists here believe that if it can happen to Lasantha Wickramatunge then it can happen to anybody," Ethirajan Anbarasan says.

"We have no faith in the local media; the media does not pay attention to our needs. It has become a voice piece of politicians and businessmen, ordinary citizen have no say, citizens are isolated and marginalized by the media in the country", said Sujeewa Herath, a teacher of a remote school in Anuradapura, speaking on the existing media culture in Sri Lanka.

"People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it's a matter of time before I am bumped off."

Wickrematunga wrote that he was twice assaulted and his house was fired upon.

"Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended.

"In all of these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me," he wrote.

'I hope my murder will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration'

This extraordinary article by the editor of the Sri Lankan Sunday Leader was published three days after he was shot dead in Colombo

In 1995, Wickramatunga was part of a Jefferson Fellowship group that toured the U.S. mainland. Former EWC staff member Larry Daks, who coordinated the Jefferson Fellowships at that time, remembers him as being “a very bright, able and outspoken kind of guy,” who had already had to leave Sri Lanka for a time after receiving threats.

Wickramatunga was a strident critic of the Sri Lankan government. His murder comes as the government is pursuing a major offensive in its civil war against Tamil separatist rebels, and just two days after gunmen ransacked the offices of the largest private TV broadcaster in the country, the MTV group. Another Jefferson alumnus, Susil Kindelpitiya, is a news director on one of MTV's channels. He was quoted as telling the BBC that the attack was due to "our unbiased reporting” on the war.