Last week’s revelation that Tamilnet had been blocked to Sri Lankan citizens took the country yet another step further away from media freedom, posing the question: How much worse must the situation become before things start to improve? It was against this bleak backdrop that journalists, academics and human rights activists and colleagues gathered at a memorial lecture which drew lessons from the life, as well as the death, of journalist Dharmaratnam Sivaram.
On the 28th April 2005, the 46 year old was abducted in broad daylight outside Bambalapitiya police station and his abandoned body was discovered the following day. Sri Lankan media and international journalists’ organizations condemned the murder as an attack on press freedom but one year later, the …

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Photo credit: CDD

This government does not represent me. It’s been said time and time again by the dissatisfied, the outraged and the incredulous community of Sri Lanka that is rapidly running out of patience with its leaders. Amongst cries against the warfare and racial tensions that continue to unsettle the island, the cost of living that is spiralling out of control and deplorable public services, it is difficult to see exactly who this Government does represent. Certainly not these angry people; nor the apathetic portion of society that has well and truly given up hope; and most certainly not women.

Women make up of 52% of Sri Lanka’s population but in parliament women’s representation is a mere …

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Abilash Jeyarajah looks like any other ordinary toddler, living with his family in a small village near Kalmunai in the Ampara district of Sri Lanka. But life was not so ordinary for him a little over two years ago, when the tsunami literally swept him into the limelight. At that time, Abilash was more widely known as Baby 81, the famous four month old who was torn from his mother’s arms when the tsunami struck and was later found among the debris and wreckage. He was brought to Kalmunai Hospital and as his identity was unknown and he was the 81st person to be admitted, he became known as Baby 81.

In the weeks following the disaster, many were still trying …

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The Dragon, a drama written by the late Russian playwright Eugene Schwartz, is a modern day political fairytale. It tells the story of Lancelot, who on his quest to slay the dragon, stumbles upon a community governed by a hierarchy of bureaucratic clowns who are using the dragon to cover up their own desire for power. Sound familiar?

It’s unlikely to be coincidental that the Sri Lankan Janakaraliya group of dramatists chose this piece as one of the adaptations that were performed when they took to the stage in Colombo, after two years of touring more remote areas of the island. In the same way that Schwartz himself demonstrated the repression, militarism, racism and brutality of his homeland under Stalin’s …

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Information sharing on various levels has become something of a modern day phenomenon, no doubt fuelled by the extensive use of the internet. Perhaps it is also a result of a heightened sense of anxiety that has taken a firm foothold since September the 11th, but the premise that the sooner we are aware or informed, the better positioned we will be to preempt bad things from happening to us, is a notion that practically everyone is familiar with. Of course, information sharing existed long before this, but the incident certainly played a part in pushing it to the forefront on such a global scale. However, this tool is not only used by intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies, but …

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The general consensus at this year’s World Press Freedom Day celebrations was that there was, in fact, very little to celebrate. Instead, it was brought home once again how reporters, journalists and media personnel in this country continue to be assassinated and abducted and how not only individuals, but entire institutions are subjected to intimidation far too frequently. Four days before World Press Freedom Day 2007, at a time when journalists should have been reflecting upon achievements of the past year, Selvarajah Rajivarman, a journalist who joined the Jaffna based Uthayan newspaper four months ago as a reporter, was ruthlessly gunned down in the street. He had previously worked for Nawadu Eelanadu, which had to be closed down after …

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The plight of the Sri Lankan tea plantation worker is a well known issue in the country, and even though the law now grants them with full citizenship rights, the real story is that these rights are very often not realised.

Plantation workers are mainly Tamils of Indian origin who were brought to the island in the late 19th century by the British. Being largely confined to the tea estates on which they earned their pitiful living, workers formed their own communities. Being so heavily dependent on the tea estate owners for most of their basic needs such as healthcare, housing and water access, these communities have almost always existed socially and economically isolated from the rest of the country. As …

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While meditation may appear to be irrelevant in times of political and social unrest, there are some who believe that this ancient practice could contribute towards transforming violent conflicts, such as the one that has been burdening the people of Sri Lanka for decades. By changing the individual consciousness, those who participate in meditative exercises are able to look at a situation in a different light, from multiple perspectives and with increased empathy and tolerance, and it is believed that the collective consciousness of an entire community or nation can also be transformed in this way.

Meditation has long been practiced in Sri Lanka by those in pursuit of physical, mental and spiritual health and has always been central to Buddhist …

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When looking at the root causes of the Sri Lankan conflict, one issue that comes up time and time again is language. According to The Constitution, Sri Lanka’s national languages are Sinhala and Tamil but it seems that ‘national language’ and ‘official language’ mean different things. The Constitution has two separate sections for these, the latter of which reads “The official language of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala. Tamil shall also be an official language. English shall be the link language.” From the wording alone, it is not surprising that this is still a very problematic area where discrimination and inequality prevail.

Today, Sri Lankans have the right to an education in either Sinhala or Tamil, but they are not required …

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Since the devastating tsunami struck the coastal areas of Sri Lanka just over two years ago, there have been mixed reviews about the rehabilitation process reported in the media. On the one hand, it has been said that Sri Lanka experienced two tsunamis, the second being the wave of money that flowed in and allowed people to rebuild their lives and look to the future. But on the other hand, and far more frequently, these stories go untold or are overshadowed by reports of corruption, unfair aid distribution and incompetent international relief organisations.

Far too rarely do we hear of stories that reflect the support and participation of various stakeholders including local level collaborations across ethnic and caste divides, NGOs, INGOs …

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