COLOMBO, May 29 (Reuters) - A Sri Lankan television journalist was hacked to death in an army-held area in the northern Jaffna peninsula on Wednesday, officials from the TV station said.

"Our Jaffna correspondent Paranerupasinghem Devakumar was hacked to death in the army-controlled area in Jaffna yesterday evening," said Susil Kindelpitiya, news director of the Maharaja Television and Radio, said on Thursday.

A military spokesman said a friend accompanying the ethnic-Tamil journalist was also attacked and died at hospital. He said the killings were being investigated by the police.

Human rights watchdogs have reported hundreds of abductions, disappearances and killings by both government security forces and Tamil Tiger separatists since Sri Lanka's 25-five-year civil war resumed in 2006.

Fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has intensified since the government pulled out of a ceasefire pact in January.

The government has been accused of taking an increasingly heavy-handed approach towards critics of its military policy both at home and abroad.

A media rights groups condemned the killing and said the government's vociferous condemnations and promises of inquiries were meaningless without the will to push investigations forward.

A media rights organisation the Free Media Movement (FMM) said Devakumar was the ninth journalist or media worker killed in Jaffna since 2006. (Reporting By Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Valerie Lee)

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