Sathasivam Baskaran was a

minority Minority may refer to: Politics * Minority government, formed when a political party does not have a majority of overall seats in parliament * Minority leader, in American politics, the floor leader of the second largest caucus in a legislative b ...

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

distributor for the Tamil newspaper

Uthayan ''Uthayan'' ( Utayaṉ, ) is a Tamil language Sri Lankan daily newspaper published by New Uthayan Publication (Private) Limited, part of the Uthayan Group of Newspapers. It was founded in 1985 and is published from Jaffna. Its sister newspaper is ...

from

Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. He was shot and killed by unknown assailants on 15 August 2006 at Puthur junction near Atchchuveli while returning after delivering the paper after the curfew hours which are in force in

. He is fourth employee of the

newspaper to be killed.

Background

Sathasivam Baskaran was part of a series of killing of Tamil media workers particularly those seen supporting the Tamil nationalist cause as the newspaper

was seen to be doing. It was seen as part of the intimidation of Tamil media. The office of

Sudar Oli ''Sudar Oli'' ( Cuṭar Oḷi) is a Tamil language Sri Lankan daily newspaper published by Mass Media Syndicate (Private) Limited, part of the Uthayan Group of Newspapers. It was founded in 2000 and is published from Colombo. Its sister newspape ...

an associated newspaper with

was searched by the Sri Lankan army on the same day.

Free Media Movement The Free Media Movement (FMM) is a media freedom watchdog organization of journalists from Sri Lanka. It evolved out of the standing committee of journalists, which was formed in late 1991. The standing committee was formed by a group of journalist ...

International Federation of Journalists The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is the largest global union federation of journalists' trade unions in the world. It represents more than 600,000 media workers from 187 organisations in 146 countries. The IFJ is an associate ...

associate reported that newspapers like Sudor Oli and

Thinakkural ''Thinakkural'' is a Tamil newspaper published in Sri Lanka. It was founded by Pon Rajagobal, former editor of Virakesari in 1997. There have reported number of attempts to force the paper to stop its distribution in recent times. See also *List ...

have received threats from anti-LTTE para-military groups demanding that their distribution be stopped and there were attempts to unofficially censure Tamil media organisations.

Incident

Sathasivam Baskaran was killed during the relaxation of the strict curfew.

is under virtual martial raising questions as how assailants could kill him or a series of other journalists and escape. This led to accusations that the killing was carried out by Security forces or paramilitary allied with them.

Reaction

The

(IFJ) has demanded an end to the continued and brutal targeting of Tamil media workers. The IFJ President Christopher Warren said

Government investigation

The International Press Institute has called in for impartial government investigation.

References

External links

Sri Lanka mission report

Nine recommendations for improving media freedom in Sri Lanka – RSFMedia in Sri Lanka
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baskaran, Sathasivam Year of birth missing 2006 deaths Deaths by firearm in Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan murder victims Sri Lankan Hindus People murdered in Sri Lanka