Lasantha Lives On In The Annals Of Modern Journalism In Sri Lanka

By Pearl Thevanayagam -January 8, 2014

Pearl Thevanayagam

When this writer organised a demonstration outside Downing Street along with RSF (Reporters sans Frontieres) and handed a petition to the PM on  Lasantha Wickrematunge’s murder, the Tamils in UK asked why all this concern for one journalist when thousands of Tamils were perishing in Wanni.

How could I express my true feelings for Lasantha’s brave journalism defying the majority Sinhala opinion that every Tamil from the North and East was a terrorist at the time?

It was Lasantha’s brave stance that I visit North and East and bring back news. He also gave me carte blanche to go anywhere I like as long as I bring eye-witness accounts. That was Lasantha and his enthusiasm for hard stories kept me on a permanent high.

He used to confine me into a cubicle to write the story when I returned since he knew my weakness for telling what happened excitedly to my colleagues rather than write it down in time for Saturday publication of The Sunday Leader.

Lasantha Wickrematunge, the Editor-in-Chief of the Sunday Leader was killed 2009. Photo/REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

I had returned from interviewing Muslim refugees in camps in the East who were hounded out by the LTTE and since I was very hungry I asked Santhanam, Lasantha’s faithful factotum and peon to bring me a buriyani packet from Buhari. Lasantha saw me digging into the meal and snorted, “Just look at Pearl. She will write about the starving refugees until the readers weep but she cannot stop gorging herself on buriyani.”

Much has been written about Lasantha but his success as editor at SL was the support he received from his family and the trust he had in his staff. SL was not just any old weekly; it was the product of a combination of hard work, passion and joy of writing which was not granted to colleagues elsewhere in the Colombo media.

There were times when Lal, Lasantha’s brother, would walk about with a frown on his face and chain-smoking Benson and Hedges since he could not find enough funds to pay us but pay us he did. SL was not funded by the government, huge advertising revenue or businesses. There were rumours that Gamini Dissanayake provided some grants but this writer is not privy to this except hearsay.                        Read More