Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Headlines, Human Rights, Press Freedom

SRI LANKA: Journos Vow to Carry on Slain Editor's Legacy

IPS Correspondents

COLOMBO, Jan 14 2009 (IPS) - Every Tuesday the editors of ‘The Sunday Leader’, the investigative Colombo-based newspaper, go through a ritual. Throughout the morning editorial staff amble in and out, tension levels rising as deadlines near.

A wide hall divided by cubicles, the editorial section resembles a gathering storm as the day progresses. Writers rush through an aisle formed by the cubicles in different stages of dishevelment. One staffer is famous for his shirt tails gradually emerging from his waistband as publishing time approaches.

But on Jan. 13 when the staff gathered for the weekly meeting there was a sense of heavy solemnity. The newspaper had lost its founding editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was waylaid and shot by unknown assassins five days earlier.

His brother, Lal Wickrematunge, chairman of the Leader publishing group, headed the meeting and the staff got down to the task of putting the newspaper together.

The Sunday Leader did bring out a special edition, 48 hours after the Jan. 8 murder, as a tribute to the slain editor. It carried a self-written obituary titled ‘And Then They Came For Me,’ in which Lasantha had predicted his own death. ‘’Murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty,’’ he wrote as if from the grave.

In a final swipe at the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse, Lasantha wrote: "In the wake of my death, I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too." Rajapakse did promise a special, thorough investigation.

‘’The conduct of bogus inquiries is part of the scheme of the assassination itself,’’ charged the Asian Human Rights Commission. ‘’ For quite some time now in Sri Lanka inquiries into politically sensitive matters have turned out to be bogus, lacking seriousness and any will to uncover the crime.’’

"You can never replace Lasantha, he was a giant," Mandana Ismail-Abeyawickrema, the news editor of the paper, told IPS. ‘’We have been discussing how to bring out the newspaper without him." The Leader has not decided on Lasantha’s replacement, said Abeyawickrema who has worked with the publisher for over a decade.

"He was a giant in the media landscape both here and abroad, there is no way that the loss can be filled. It will be like a loud hum in an abyss," media rights advocate Poddala Jayantha, from the Working Journalists Association, said.

That loss was apparent on the day the slain editor was laid to rest. At least 5,000 mourners accompanied the casket through downtown Colombo. Among them were members from the opposition parliamentary groups and some said the funeral had been turned into a political circus.

"We had bleeding hearts on Monday as our much-loved editor was being laid to rest. It devastated us to have some security types demand that we produce our media accreditation cards to prove that we were Sunday Leader staff and indeed journalists. For a moment I wondered whether I was seeking access to my own editor’s funeral or that of some corrupt and stupid politician’s burial,’’ Dilrukshi Handunnetti, the newspaper’s investigations editor wrote in its mid-weekly publication, The Morning Leader.

As the funeral procession wended its way to the cemetery there were unabashed attempts to take political advantage of it. Opposition supporters used loud-hailers to rail at the government and others burnt an effigy of Rajapakse.

Among the mourners were diplomats, journalists, lawyers, civil rights activists and ordinary citizens who were Lasantha’s readers. Some of them feared that without the charismatic and larger-than-life Lasantha the Leader could fall prey to the manipulations of political parties.

Jurgen Weerth, the ambassador from Germany said: ‘’Today is a day when one remains speechless. Maybe we should have spoken before this. Today it is too late. Today is a day when humanity has lost a major voice of truth. But he will live in his work."

Weerth, according to press reports, was later summoned by the Sri Lankan foreign ministry.

"He was the Leader and the Leader was Lasantha…the staff will have to really be strong to resist political pressure," a regular reader of the newspaper, Ranjith Amarakeerthi, said.

Abeyawickrema and Handunnetti both vowed to continue their former editor’s legacy as a courageous independent writer.

"The Leader has always been an independent newspaper, we have never taken anyone else’s line. We will not be politicised. We will go forward as an independent media organisation," Abeyawickrema told IPS.

"Now that he is gone, we have been thrown into the deep end. It is now required of us to sustain his memory, continue that legacy and give voice to those Lasantha gave representation to. We can only try to live his dream and fight for the same ideals. That’s the spirit in which he nurtured us. Do not doubt whether the legacy of our brightest light would be continued,’’ Hadunhetti wrote in a tribute titled ‘Yes, we can.’

For the journalists at The Sunday Leader, Lasantha was much more than a king-maker or an ace editor who inspired people around him.

"He was much more than that," Abeyawickrema said. ''He was the first and probably the only editor in this country to break with tradition in his reporting and in his culture of dealing with juniors."

‘’Lasantha gave full freedom to his writers and never tried to impose an agenda, and he encouraged young writers to develop. No editor from this generation has done that. Look around in the English [language] press in this country and you will see how many mid- level journalists cut their teeth in the trade under this man,’’ Abeyawickrema said.

Journalists attached to other publications also vowed not to let his legacy die. They raised their fists as they laid their colleague to rest. Many wore black bands around their arms in an act of protest and took a pledge, in front of Lasantha’s body, not to let his ideals down.

"It is the least that we could do for him, he meant so much to journalism in this country," media advocate Sunanda Deshapriya told IPS.

As the mourners moved away from the cemetery, activists lit candles next to a large portrait of Lasantha, near the front entrance. The cemetery gates clanged shut but a small group, consisting of Jayantha, Deshapriya and others lingered near the portrait now lit up by candles. The were unable to leave their colleague and move into more uncertain times.