Journalists mark 20 years since killing of Sugirdharajan, murdered for exposing Trinco 5 massacre

The 20th anniversary of the assassination of journalist Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan was commemorated on Saturday at Uvarmalai Park in Trincomalee, with journalists, civil society activists, and members of the public gathering to remember a reporter killed for exposing state violence against Tamils.

The remembrance was organised by the Trincomalee Journalists’ Association and held at the site where Sugirdharajan was murdered on 24 January 2006. Media workers and press organisations marked the occasion, reiterating long-standing demands for justice and accountability.

Sugirdharajan, who worked for the Tamil-language newspaper Sudar Oli, was shot dead while waiting for transport to travel to work. His killing came amid an escalating climate of intimidation against Tamil journalists, particularly those documenting abuses by Sri Lankan security forces during the renewed phase of the armed conflict.

He had played a crucial role in exposing the massacre of five Tamil students on Trincomalee beach earlier that month. Following the killings, Sugirdharajan accompanied Dr Manoharan, the father of one of the murdered students, to the mortuary. He subsequently published photographs showing the bodies bearing clear point-blank gunshot wounds.

These images directly contradicted claims by the Sri Lankan government that the students had been killed by a grenade explosion, and instead pointed to their execution by state forces. Sugirdharajan’s reporting was among the earliest and most significant pieces of evidence challenging the official narrative surrounding the massacre.

His assassination, which took place just weeks after the publication of those photographs, has never been credibly investigated, and no one has been held accountable. For Tamil journalists and rights advocates, his killing remains emblematic of the systematic targeting of media workers who documented crimes committed in the Tamil homeland.

Two decades on, participants at the commemoration noted that the conditions which led to Sugirdharajan’s murder persist, with impunity for attacks on journalists continuing to undermine press freedom and accountability.