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 A courageous Sri Lankan
editor dies in the service of his country
On January 8,
Lasantha Wicrematunge, the editor in chief of the Sunday Leader
newspaper in Sri Lanka, was shot in the head and murdered by an
assailant on his way to his office. Sri Lankan President Mahindra
Rajapakse has sworn to find the murderer. Given the Sunday Leader’s
opposition to Rajapakse’s regime, many in Sri Lanka suspect
that parties close to him were responsible for the killing.
As fellow
journalists, we mourn the passing of a courageous individual who
stood up for 15 years and told truth to power until it killed him.
But we mourn as well a country where the practice of journalism can
be a death sentence. We would also point out that Wicrematunge’s
murder has hardly deterred the Sunday Leader, which in the edition
discussing his assassination carried a story on questionable expense
allowances for members of parliament, among other articles.
Wicrematunge had a
strong premonition that he would be killed. A year ago, the paper’s
offices were firebombed and its printing presses were destroyed. He
had been threatened and shot at. Before he died, he wrote the
following editorial to be published if he was killed. It was printed
in the Sunday Leader. It is a tragic reminder that the daily
newspaper, which is becoming an irrelevancy in some parts of the
world, is a precious and irreplaceable asset in others. Asia Sentinel
reprints his editorial here with sadness.
Editorial by Lasantha
Wicrematunge
No other profession
calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save
the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism.
In the course of the
past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under
attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt,
bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed,
threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those
categories and now especially the last.
I have been in the
business of journalism a good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be The
Sunday Leader's 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka
during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the
greater part of that change has been for the worse. We find ourselves
in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists
whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by
terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed,
murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control
the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will
be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or
the stakes lower.
Why then do we do it? I
often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of
three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations
that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it
worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to
revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer
livelihood. Others, including political leaders on both sides, have
at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so
far as to offer me ministries of my choice. Diplomats, recognizing
the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka , have offered me safe passage
and the right of residence in their countries. Whatever else I may
have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.
But there is a calling
that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the
call of conscience.
The Sunday Leader has
been a controversial newspaper because we say it like we see it:
whether it be a spade, a thief or a murderer, we call it by that
name. We do not hide behind euphemism. The investigative articles we
print are supported by documentary evidence thanks to the
public-spiritedness of citizens who at great risk to themselves pass
on this material to us. We have exposed scandal after scandal, and
never once in these 15 years has anyone proved us wrong or
successfully prosecuted us.
The free media serve as
a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling
gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its
management by the people you elected to give your children a better
future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant
one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the
journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great
risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.
Every newspaper has its
angle, and we do not hide the fact that we have ours. Our commitment
is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy.
Think about those words, for they each has profound meaning.
Transparent because government must be openly accountable to the
people and never abuse their trust. Secular because in a multi-ethnic
and multi-cultural society such as ours, secularism offers the only
common ground by which we might all be united. Liberal because we
recognise that all human beings are created different, and we need to
accept others for what they are and not what we would like them to
be. And democratic... well, if you need me to explain why that is
important, you'd best stop buying this paper.
The Sunday Leader has
never sought safety by unquestioningly articulating the majority
view. Let's face it that is the way to sell newspapers. On the
contrary, as our opinion pieces over the years amply demonstrate, we
often voice ideas that many people find distasteful. For example, we
have consistently espoused the view that while separatist terrorism
must be eradicated, it is more important to address the root causes
of terrorism, and urged government to view Sri Lanka 's ethnic strife
in the context of history and not through the telescope of terrorism.
We have also agitated against state terrorism in the so-called war
against terror, and made no secret of our horror that Sri Lanka is
the only country in the world routinely to bomb its own citizens. For
these views we have been labeled traitors, and if this be treachery,
we wear that label proudly.
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