Sri Lanka is no stranger to bloodshed, censorship, and suppressed voices. Beneath its beaches and headlines of post-war recovery lies a chilling history ,a list of journalists who simply disappeared. No charges. No answers. No justice. Their names fade from news cycles, but their absence speaks volumes about a system where truth-tellers are treated as threats, not citizens.
A Dangerous Silence in Paradise
During the height of the Sri Lankan civil war and its aftermath, media became a war zone of its own. Journalists who dared to investigate military operations, political corruption, or human rights violations often met one of three fates exile, execution, or disappearance.
Among the most haunting cases is that of Prageeth Eknaligoda, a political cartoonist and investigative journalist who disappeared on January 24, 2010. His wife, Sandya Eknaligoda, has spent over a decade demanding answers from a state that continues to dodge accountability. Prageeth was investigating allegations of chemical weapon use by the military when he vanished. The implications of his work and his disappearance remain buried under years of state silence and procedural delays.
The Pattern Is Political
The disappearances were never random. The majority of missing journalists were Tamil, Muslim, or Sinhala critics of the government. They worked in conflict zones. They asked uncomfortable questions. They disrupted narratives of state innocence and nationalist pride. And for that, they were made to vanish.
Investigative journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge was assassinated in 2009 in broad daylight. Though not missing, his death was a loud warning: even the most influential voices were not untouchable. Wickrematunge himself predicted his death in a final editorial published posthumously. It wasn’t just a goodbye ,it was an indictment of a country where journalism had become a high-risk profession.
No Justice, Just Erasure
What makes these disappearances even more disturbing is the culture of impunity that surrounds them. Despite local and international pressure, successive governments have failed to deliver justice. Trials stall. Evidence vanishes. Witnesses are intimidated. Truth becomes a casualty of bureaucracy and political interest.
Sri Lanka has routinely ranked among the worst countries for press freedom in South Asia, and these disappearances are a key reason why the state’s failure or refusal to solve these cases signals to other journalists that their safety is conditional. That silence is safer than truth.
Media Freedom Still Under Threat
Today, even in so-called peace times, journalists remain vulnerable. Surveillance, intimidation, censorship, and self-censorship are common. Those who report on sensitive topics , especially those involving the military, war crimes, or Tamil issues are still branded as traitors or “anti-national.” And while the world celebrates Sri Lanka’s digital growth, journalists on the ground know that freedom here is still tightly policed.
The Weight of Missing Voices
When a journalist disappears, it’s not just their body that goes missing, it’s the stories they never got to tell, the corruption that remains hidden, the truth that remains suffocated. These journalists were not enemies of the state. They were its conscience. Silencing them was never about national security. It was about control.
And yet, the fight is not over. People like Sandya Eknaligoda continue to challenge the state’s silence, turning personal grief into public resistance. Independent media outlets and activists keep the names of the disappeared alive. They remind the world that truth does not vanish just because a journalist does.
A Call to Remember, A Call to Act
It’s easy to forget the names of the missing in a country trying to market itself as a tourist paradise. But true healing, true reconciliation, demands that we confront what has been buried.
The world must stop treating the disappearances of journalists as “local issues.” They are global crimes against press freedom and human dignity. Sri Lanka cannot move forward without reckoning with its past and that includes bringing the truth about its missing journalists to light.
Until then, every vanished voice echoes in the silence of a nation still afraid of the truth.