Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday said his government wants to reopen investigations into all past murders and disappearances of journalists.
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“As the new government, we want to reopen investigations on all disappearances, murders and other challenges faced by the media personnel in the recent past,” Mr. Sirisena said addressing an event last night to mark the disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda.
Eknaligoda went missing in January, 2010 while he was working in an election campaign in the then presidential election.
“We all remember the difficult times they faced,” he said.
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The President had pledged to restore full freedom of media when he challenged Mahinda Rajapaksa in January’s presidential election.
Although investigations were initiated on attacks on journalists, they have not resulted in anyone being prosecuted.
In the latest World Press Freedom Index rankings issues in April this year, Sri Lanka was ranked 165 out of 180 countries.