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News from Jaffna JAFFNA’S
ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER
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Sunday 24 June 2001. Jaffna Daily Uthayan reported that on Saturday June 23, the motorcycle in which the Daily’s lead editor Ganamylnathan, aged 58, was traveling was hit by a pick up van and both he and the driver of the motorbike sustained serious injuries and are in hospital awaiting surgery. The paper also reported that in a very similar incident on May 6 at exactly the same location another employee, Daily’s manager Nanthakumar, was hit by a pick up van and he died on the spot. Both pick up vans belonged to the EPDP political party the paper said. EPDP is the only Tamil party in the government coalition and its leader Douglas Devenanda hold the ministerial position for Rehabilitation of the Tamil areas. Amnesty International in its 2001 annual report on Sri Lanka noted that: “circumstantial evidence puts the blame for killing journalist Nimalranjan, Jaffna correspondence for various newspapers and international agencies, on members of the EPDP party working with the security forces”. Sri Lankan government closed the Uthayan newspaper office during the height of its censorship laws. Uthayan newspaper received the “Brave journalism” award from the Editors guild of Sri Lanka in 2000.
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