RSF: SL authorities must stop harassing photojournalist Kumanan Kanapathipillai

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday called on the Sri Lankan government to put a stop to its unacceptable harassment of Kanapathipillai Kumanan, a photojournalist covering human rights violations and abuses in northern Sri Lanka; he is being subjected to a new intimidation campaign orchestrated by the authorities.

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The RSF has said in a media statement: "A freelancer whose photographs have been published in local and international media, including The Guardian, Groundviews and the Evening Standard, Kanapathipillai Kumanan is one of Sri Lanka's most persecuted journalists.

"Since the end of Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war in May 2009, he has covered sensitive issues affecting the Tamil population in the northeast of the country, such as the exhumations of mass graves in Chemmani (in the Jaffna Peninsula) in the summer of 2025, the enforced disappearance of Tamils, the military's land grab in the northeast, environmental crimes and the fight for justice led by civil war victims.