UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura today condemned the murder of Iyer Balanadarajah, better known as Sinha Bala, a reporter of the Tamil weekly Thinamurasu, and called for a full investigation of the killing, the second assassination of a journalist in Sri Lanka this year.

“ I condemn the killing of Iyer Balanadarajah which, like all killings of journalists, constitutes a cowardly attack on democracy and rule of law,” Mr. Matsuura declared. “I am confident that the authorities will spare no effort in investigating this killing, the second murder of this type this year. In view of the tragic violence that has marked so much of Sri Lanka’s recent history, it is essential that freedom of the press be allowed to take root, if peace and democracy are to be sustained.

According to the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Border, Mr. Balanadarajah’s newspaper has been subject to harassment from the insurgent Tamil Tigers (LTTE) movement. The NGO reports that another journalist working for the paper, Sadacharalingham Kamalathasan, was hot and wounded in the Batticaloa district, east of the capital Colombo. It also says that the Tamil Tigers earlier this year tried to stop distribution of the paper in the eastern part of the country. Aiyathurai Nadesan, a Tamil journalist with the daily Virakesari Tamil was shot dead on 31 May.