BREAKING NEWS

Sri Lanka accused of blocking slain editor probe

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

JANUARY 8, 2011 08:42

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A media rights group on Saturday accused the Sri Lankan government of blocking an investigation into the killing of a newspaper editor two years ago, saying it's indifference in solving the crime had made it an accomplice.

On the second anniversary of his death, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said Lasantha Wickrematunge's killers remained at large and accused Sri Lanka's government of stymieing an investigation.

Wickrematunge, editor of The Sunday Leader newspaper, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen while driving to work on Jan. 8, 2009. The paper had been critical of the government's conduct of the decades-long war against the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, and reported on alleged human rights violations and government corruption.

"Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the fact that the Sri Lankan government is doing nothing to solve this murder and in fact is clearly preventing the truth from coming to light," the group said in a statement. "By blocking the investigation and by fostering a climate of impunity and indifference, the government has become an accomplice."

Police said Saturday the case was still be investigated.

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