From AJR,   March & april 2011

Continuing the Struggle    Web exclusive Her husband, editor of a newspaper in Sri Lanka, was fatally attacked. Now in exile in New York City, Sonali Samarasinghe presses forward with their fight for press freedom and justice in their native country. Posted: Friday, May 20 2011 By Gena Chung Gena Chung (genakchung@hotmail.com), a writer based in Washington, D.C., is a graduate student at the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland  Tsunami aid misappropriation. Abuse of government power. Corporate fraud. These are the types of stories to which award-winning investigative journalist and newspaper editor Sonali Samarasinghe gravitated. When she won the Global Shining Light Award at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in 2008, it cited "her work to reveal misuse of power and corruption in Sri Lanka." But there was one story for which she was completely unprepared.  Continuing the Struggl Full Story>>> ====================== By Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- When the UN Panel of Experts recommended to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he establish an investigative mechanism for war crimes in Sri Lanka, Ban responded that he'd only do so upon a vote of one of the UN's three “inter-governmental bodies.”   Full Story>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------- Wimal’s Multi Million Rupee Damp Squi Wimal Weerawansa’s joy ride to New York turns out to be a multi-million rupee flop and Weerawansa speaks to a Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation cameraman with a measly crowd of 20 protesters behind him Photos by: A special reporter from New York Leader for the National Freedom Front (NFF) and Housing and Construction Minister Wimal Weerawansa’s costly and extravagant trip to New York cost US$ 19,000 (approx. Rs. 2 million) each for himself and his young son Vibhuthi to travel first class on Emirates Airlines. Weerawansa traveled to New York to participate in the 2600 Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi celebrations at the UN headquarters on May 16 where UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had also graced the occasion.                              Read More »