Sri Lanka mediaman killed by unidentified gunmen

August 01, 2007 (LBO) – Gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a journalist in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula Wednesday, the Free Media Movement (FMM), a media rights group, said. Nilakshan Sahapavan (22), a journalism student of the Jaffna Media Resource Training Centre (MRTC) and a part-time journalist, was shot around 4.00 a.m. during curfew hours at his home in the town of Kokuvil, an area under military control, FMM said

Sahapavan succumbed to his injuries a few hours later at Jaffna General Hospital, 3 miles away.

"FMM demands an immediate, open and impartial inquiry into the killing of journalist Nilakshan Sahapavan," FMM said in a statement. "He was the eighth media worker/journalist killed in Jaffna since May 2006."

The International Press Freedom Mission which visited Sri Lanka in June this year has named Jaffna as one of the worst places to be a journalist in the world today.

MRTC, affiliated to University of Jaffna, was established with the support of UNESCO and is being supported by Danida of Denmark.

MRTC works in close association of Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) of Colombo.

The FMM statement said that during the last two wee