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Sri Lanka’s Black January: Impunity and attacks on journalists

A series chronicling the continued impunity around attacks on journalists in Sri Lanka, including murders and enforced disappearances

By The Editors
Journalists protest to draw attention to media freedom during a day and night protest in front of the Presidential Secretaria
Journalists protest to draw attention to media freedom during a day and night protest in front of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 18, 2022.
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31 January marks ‘Black January’ in Sri Lanka – a day commemorating the intimidation, murders and enforced disappearances of journalists in Sri Lanka, particularly during the month of January. According to a database maintained by the media watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists, 25 journalists and media workers were killed in the country between 1992 and 2025. The Journalists for Democracy database has recorded 43 names from Sri Lanka of journalists and media workers who were killed or disappeared between 2004 and 2010. 

This series, in collaboration with the media-freedom watchdog Free Media Movement, explores many of the cases of attacks on Sri Lankan journalists that still languish unresolved. 

Also read: Anatomy of a murder investigation – the Lasantha Wickrematunge case

Also read: The wait for justice for Nimalarajan Mylvaganam, murdered Jaffna journalist