Nimalarajan was a regular contributor to the BBC's Sinhala and Tamil language programs, Sandeshaya and Tamil Osai , and a correspondent for the Colombo-based Tamil daily Virakesari and Ravaya , a Sinhala language weekly. He was also the secretary of the Northern Journalists Association. The Editors Guild and the Free Media Movement along with political parties and volunteer organisations in Jaffna have condemned the murder. Journalists and their supporters in the northern town of Vavuniya staged a protest demonstration on October 24. Another protest organised by Colombo journalists' associations and other groups was held the following day in the capital.
Coverage is limited to occasional escorted visits for small groups of handpicked journalists.
The government even refused to allow journalists from the Colombo-based Free Media Movement and Ravaya newspaper to attend Nirmalarajan's funeral in Jaffna. There is little doubt that Nimalarajan was murdered for his exposure of state repression of Tamils on the Jaffna peninsula. The EPDP, which maintains its own groups of armed thugs, works closely with the security forces on the Jaffna peninsula in maintaining what amounts to martial law in the area. In the recent Sri Lankan elections, the EPDP won four of the nine seats in the Jaffna electoral district. The party demanded and was granted the Northern Rehabilitation Ministry as its price for providing the PA government with a slender parliamentary majority.