Sri Lanka Leader reporter Faraz Shauketaly shot

11 years ago | Posted in: Breaking News, Latest Politics News | 1783 Views

A reporter from a newspaper in Sri Lanka has been shot by a group of unidentified men at his home on the outskirts of the capital Colombo.

Sunday Leader journalist Faraz Shauketaly was rushed to hospital after being shot in the neck.

A doctor who treated Mr Shauketaly at the hospital told the BBC’s Azzam Ameen in Colombo the journalist was now out of danger.

Sri Lankan police say an investigation into the shooting is under way.

Mr Shauketaly uses his home as a guest house in Mount Lavinia; one of the residents heard his screams after the shooting late on Friday night and drove him to hospital.

He was transferred to the private clinic where a doctor told the BBC the bullet had been successfully removed.

Another resident of the guest-house told the BBC: “Faraz said to us in the morning that his life was in danger, we didn’t see the people but I guess they may have shot at him from his window.”

Anti-establishment paper

Four years ago, the Sunday Leader’s editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was shot dead by a group of masked men on motorbikes.
Portrait of Lasantha Wickrematunge in the Leader’s offices Critics say the Sunday Leader has lost its sting since editor Lasantha Wickrematunge was killed

The case, which has never been solved, highlighted the dismal state of press freedom in the country, analysts said.

The investigative, anti-establishment newspaper had riled the authorities and continued to do so after his death. But last July the near-bankrupt Leader was bought by a well-connected businessman.

In September the then-editor, Frederica Jansz, said he had sacked her for not toeing his political line. She then fled abroad citing fresh death threats.

Under a new editor, Sakunthala Perera, the paper has issued retractions of past articles and has lost some of its most outspoken columnists.

courtesy:bbcnews

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