News 1st
May 28, 2008, in Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Devakumar, Jaffna correspondent for the independent channel News 1st, was stabbed to death when he was attacked by supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according to Sunanda Deshapriya, spokesman for local press freedom group the Free Media Movement.

Deshapriya said that FMM's investigations had shown that Devakumar was killed by Tamil Tiger supporters in retribution for critical reporting on LTTE activities in the area. Deshapriya also noted the journalist had covered a government-sponsored rally that the LTTE had wanted him to avoid.

The group also killed Mahendran Warden, a friend of the journalist who was traveling with him by motorbike in the government-controlled area, according to a report published on the News 1st Web site. Devakumar and Warden were returning home in the evening when the attack occurred, news reports said. Warden was the son of a leading member of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a Tamil party working with the government, Deshapriya said.

Devakumar was one of the few remaining journalists reporting from the peninsula, a focal point in the civil war between the predominantly Sinhalese government and the LTTE, which claims territory for an ethnic Tamil homeland. Conflict worsened in recent years, and a 2002 cease-fire agreement was abandoned in January 2008.

Medium:Television
Job:Broadcast Reporter
Beats Covered:Politics, War
Gender:Male
Local or Foreign:Local
Freelance:No
Type of Death:Murder
Suspected Source of Fire:Political Group
Impunity:Yes
Taken Captive:No
Tortured:No
Threatened:Yes

 

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