Is This How Wars Start? India and China Now Feud Over the South China Sea

The INS Airavat sails out of the harbor in Vishakhapatnam, India, Tuesday, May 19, 2009. (Photo: Press Information Bureau / AP)

Last week, one of the world's most intractable disputes got even stickier. News leaked that the international-arm of India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was in talks with the government of Vietnam over hydrocarbon exploration rights in the South China Sea. In most parts of the world this would seem a routine bi-lateral development between two countries driven by their dynamic economies. But the South China Sea, whose waters are claimed to varying degree by half a dozen countries and almost in full by China, is unlike any body of water in the world, and where an oil company may see opportunity, most others only see a swirling geo-political maelstrom.

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Independence and Freedom Of The Press: The Sri Lankan Experience

Monday, September 19, 2011

By Lakshman Indranath Keerthisinghe

The Fourth Estate and John Mills statement came true in the case of Thilak Karunaratne v. Sirima Bandaranaike

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had power, would be justified in silencing mankind.’ -John Stuart Mill in his essay ‘On Liberty’ (1859) Dheeraratne J in the case of Thilak Karunaratne v. Sirimavo Bandaranaike and others quoted this statement with approval and said: ‘passage of time has not staled the force of John Stuart Mill’s statement.’

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