Latest Sri Lanka journalist killing outrageous: rights body

May 30, 2008 (LBO) – An international media rights body said it was outraged by the hacking to death of a Sri Lankan television journalist in the northern Jaffna peninsular along with a friend. "Caught in the crossfire between two armed forces, journalists in the Jaffna peninsula are constantly the targets of threats, kidnappings and murders, and many of them have been forced to flee the region," RSF said.

The government has reportedly assigned three police teams to probe the incident.

The killing comes a day after the the deputy editor and defence correspondent of The Nation newspaper Keith Noyahr was abducted and severely assaulted. He is still in hospital. "Devakumar is the latest journalist to fall victim to the spiral of violence that has wracked the Jaffna peninsula since fighting between the government and Tamil Tigers resumed in 2006," the Paris-based press freedom organisation Reporters without Borders (RSF) said.

"The government in Colombo must do everything possible to establish the circumstances of this murder and identity those responsible, so that it does not go unpunished as so many others have."

The reporter Paranirupasingam Devakumar, 36, worked for the