Film eulogy for Taraki on 7th death anniversary

CHENNAI: The suppression and murder of journalists in Sri Lanka against the backdrop of the civil strife in the country was the subject of a documentary screened in the city on Saturday evening. The documentary, Taraki, tells the story of the gory deaths that 49 journalists met with in the island nation in the form of a eulogy for Sri Lankan Tamil journalist and Tamil nationalist ideologue D Sivaraman, who was murdered in 2005.The screening was scheduled to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the discovery of Sivaraman’s body close to the Parliament building in the Sri Lankan capital of Sri Jayawardanapura Kotte.The documentary, made by Soumeethran, was a compilation of interviews shot by the director over many years, including Sivaraman’s comments on media freedon in Sri Lanka and the adaptations that the Tamil nationalist movement would have to undergo to survive.A number of journalists featured in the documentary spoke of their own experience of oppression by the Sri Lankan government and spoke of what the murders of journalists like Sivaraman and Lasantha Wikramathunga meant to the journalistic fraternity in Sri Lanka.Their comments were mirrored in real life once the screening was over, with audience members who had known Sivaraman and were in the know about the situation in Sri Lanka speaking on the subject.They noted that many instances of the killing of journalists in Sri Lanka were not recorded by papers in Tamil Nadu. They observed that it was not just Tamil newspapers and journalists, but also Sinhala ones that were on the receiving end of such violence and threats.