Journalism has perhaps become the most dangerous profession in this country. It is riskier than even soldiering in that a soldier has to be mindful of only one enemy whereas a journalist does not know from which quarter the icy cold hand of death may reach out for him or her.

Close on the heels of the assassination of The Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickremetunga, the Rivira editor Upali Tennakoon came under a goon attack yesterday morning. Like the much dreaded oprichniks of Ivan the Terrible on horseback snapping at the heels of their enemies, Upali's assailants came riding motorcycles. They came; they attacked and they vanished into thin air in broad daylight just the way the killers of Lasantha had done, the only difference being that Upali was lucky to escape death.

Yesterday's incident is, no doubt, condemned by one and all as a cowardly act of violence.

Many a bucket of political tears will be shed for Upali and his wife, Dhammika, who happened to be with him at the time of the attack and sustained injuries. The government and the Opposition have already begun playing Ping-Pong with the incident: The former is trying to place the blame at the latter's doorstep and vice versa. And nothing will come of the probe to be conducted if our experience with such investigations in the past is anything to go by. We hope we will be proved wrong.

Sri Lanka, as we argued in a previous comment, is fast becoming a country like Colombia, where it is said a journalist is free to write anything and anyone is equally free to kill him or her for writing that. It was only the other day that the government told Parliament that since Jan. 2006, nine journalists had been killed and 27 attacked. The list seems to be getting longer by the day.

We desist from conducting a media trial over the attack on the Rivira editor. In a society characterised by near lawlessness and the attendant culture of impunity, anything is possible. But, nothing relieves the government of its bounden duty to have incidents of violence against media personnel as well as all others thoroughly probed and culprits brought to justice.

Unfortunately, the police do not care to conclude their probes and prosecute any suspects, though they are known for their high octane performance in cracking far more complex cases in record time at the behest of politicians.

The onus is on the government to jolt the police into action and have the cowardly elements responsible for attacks on journalists arrested. Let no lame excuses be trotted out!