Sri Lanka’s Long Shadow: Systematic Shielding of Journalists’ Killers Revealed

September 09, 2025 – Sri Lanka – 

A recent report by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), summarized by Newswire on September 9, 2025, exposes a harrowing pattern of impunity in Sri Lanka’s treatment of those responsible for killing journalists. For over 25 years, the island nation has systematically shielded perpetrators, even as at least 44 media workers were assassinated during the civil war between 2000 and 2010. To date, none have been held accountable.

The report focuses on the October 2000 murder of BBC Jaffna reporter Nimalarajan Mylvaganam. The investigation was deemed a textbook failure: the crime scene—located within a high-security curfew zone ringed by military checkpoints—was never secured or documented. Authorities failed to collect basic forensic evidence, such as photographs, and interviews with security personnel were delayed or never conducted. Ballistic evidence was mishandled; despite the apparent advantages of the high-security setting, the response was lethargic and ineffective.

The broader context of the report underscores that these investigative failures are not anomalies. Rather, they reflect a systemic refusal to pursue justice for attacks on journalists. Over a decade, no prosecution has succeeded, reinforcing a climate in which the silencing of the press incurs no real consequences. ITJP warns that this impunity sends a chilling message: journalists face life-threatening risks and may feel compelled to self-censor, go into exile, or abandon reporting altogether.

The legacy of Nimalarajan’s murder thus becomes emblematic of Sri Lanka’s broader erosion of press freedom and rule of law. The report’s findings demand international attention: without accountability, the norm is protection for killers, not justice for victims.

This account lays bare more than a failed investigation—it reveals institutional neglect and political indifference toward journalists’ lives. It underscores how unresolved crimes against media workers not only silence truth-tellers but also orrode democracy itself.

Reference – 

Sri Lanka systematically protected murderers of journalists – Report