New York, April 20, 2007—Subash Chandraboas, editor of the Tamil-language monthly magazine Nilam, was shot and killed in his home near Vavuniya on Monday. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether the killing was related to his work.
The Free Media Movement (FMM), a media-rights organization that first reported the death, said it was not immediately clear if the killing was work-related. Vavuniya, 162 miles (260 kilometers) north of Colombo, has been the site of a number of recent killings. Sri Lankan media put the number at 25 since the beginning of the month, according to FMM.
Chandrabose, who had contributed freelance work to other Tamil publications and Web sites, was among nine people detained by the Special Intelligence Unit in October 2001 under suspicion of being involved with a landmine that was found near their homes.
Fighting has resumed in the country when the Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebels were unable to salvage their crumbling ceasefire in 2006. Tamil journalists have been particular targets of hit squads and bombings, accounting for all seven of the journalist murders in Sri Lanka between 2000 and 2005.