Manik de Silva is the most senior and longest-serving Editor of an English newspaper in Sri Lanka. Presently the Editor of the Sunday Island, Manik was also a former Editor of the Daily News and is currently the President of the Editors Guild.
Manik’s testimony to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) on 13th September 2010 covers, inter alia, the nature of media censorship during the war, the deliberate targeting of independent journalists by both the Government and the LTTE, the problems arising from the lack of access to war zones by independent media and views on the media and the ceasefire agreement in general.
[audio:http://www.groundviews.org/wp-content/uploads/Manik-De-Silva.mp3|titles=Manik De Silva testimony to LLRC]This recording is best listened with headphones and is around 47 minutes long.
Unsurprisingly, no State media in Sri Lanka gave any coverage to Manik’s condemnation of the war time censorship of media, or references to the retribution journalists faced if they reported in a manner perceived to be ‘unhelpful’ by the military.
For an in-depth video interview with Manik conducted two months after the end of war in 2009, click here.