A young journalism student and a part-time trainee journalist was shot dead in Jaffna Wednesday by unidentified gunmen. The killers called the victim out of his house in the wee hours and gunned him down. Sahathevan Nilakshan (22) was one of the editors of Sankam, a popular student magazine published by the Jaffna District Students Federation.
Nilakshan, a journalism student of Jaffna Media Resource Training Centre (MRTC), succumbed to his injuries at Jaffna General Hospital few hours later, the Free Media Movement (FMM) reported. FMM has demand an immediate, open and impartial inquiry into killing of Nilakshan.
Nilakshan is the eighth media worker/journalist killed in Jaffna since May 2006.
The International Press Freedom Mission which visited Sri Lanka in June this year named Jaffna as one of the worst places to be a journalist in the world today.
The MRTC, affiliated to the University of Jaffna, was established with the support of UNESCO and is being supported by Danida for the last two years. MRTC works in close association with the Colombo-based Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI).
