Like many of her fellow villagers, 22-year-old Khampheng Manivone first heard about  community radio when letters were sent to different villages in Khoun – one of the poorest districts in Laos – asking for volunteers to be part of the Khoun Community Radio Development (KCRD) project.

Khampheng jumped at the chance to apply as one of the first few volunteers to join Khoun Radio in July 2006, more than a year before its  first test broadcasts in late October 2007.

The station, which reaches out to community groups through local programming, aims to  improve the people’s access to information and increase residents’ participation in development-related decisions, today broadcasts seven days a week, seven and a half hours a day, in three local languages – Lao Lum, Hmong and Khmu.

“Before I joined the station I was very shy, I couldn’t speak in front of many people, even with people in the village. But now, I can speak in public with confidence. And when I join outreach activities organised by the station, I can speak with people and work with people and I have learnt many things,” said Khampheng, a delegate at the Mekong Media Forum being held in this northern Thai city until Dec. 12.

The volunteer broadcaster now also heads the Khmu programme production group at Khoun Radio, a project put up by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the support of Laos’ information and culture ministry and the Xiengkhouang Province Department of Information and Culture.

“We are a people who do not like to talk too much, because we don’t want to hurt people,” said Vongsone Oudomsouk, project manager of the Khoun Radio project, of the popular stereotype of the Lao people. “But 50 percent of volunteers are now made up of villagers, who act as representatives of their communities.”

Production of the radio programmes are done in collaboration with the villagers, Vongsone explained, emphasising on the importance of community involvement at Khoun Radio. “Villagers actually take part in decision making processes, what to produce, when to broadcast, in how many languages, and so on.”

And it is this inclusive approach, and the airing of topics relevant to the community, that has resulted in positive change for the people of Khoun district.

Speaking at a satellite session, ‘Empowering Local People Through Community Radio’, held on Dec. 10 at the Forum, Vongsone recounts anecdotal evidence that points to the success of Khoun Radio in assisting development in the district. For example, some doctors he spoke to had previously tried – unsuccessfully – to promote vaccination for babies, because villagers did not understand it and were not receptive to the idea. But after the airing of radio shows discussing this issue, these doctors have reported an increase in vaccination rates.

The Khoun Radio project is part of plans by the Laos government to introduce community radios in all of the 47 poorest districts of the country by providing a platform for the community to discuss issues of local interest, including agriculture, health, and education.

On top of the improvement in information flow and increased community involvement in development issues, delegates at the session here also discussed the importance of community radio as compared to mainstream media.

Cai Yiping, executive director of women’s rights group Isis International, explains that the content in community-based media is often more relevant and useful to the audience. “In community radio, because the audience is also the producer, they are the ones who know what information they need,” she said.

Forum participants also turned the spotlight on another difference between the two media models: unlike mainstream media, non-commercial community radio struggles to stay financially sustainable. For example, Vongsone says, the station had previously turned away advertisers for motorcycles and milk powder because of concerns within the communities over the socio-cultural impacts these products might bring.

To this end, Vongsone hopes for the station to be able to work out some form of “partnership strategy” with organisations that share “the same aim of getting the Khoun area out of poverty”. He is also looking to set up a “volunteers fund” to offer financial assistance to Khoun Radio volunteers, who currently receive only a small allowance for their time and services.

But for some volunteers, like Khampheng, it matters little whether she is paid. More importantly, “it’s something that I like, something I’m interested in, and I want to be part of the development of my community,” she said.

CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Dec 12 (TerraViva) – “It’s not a matter of ethics, this is survival!” a Laos-based journalist in the audience raved, as he disclosed details of instances where he – and others he knew – had received monetary reward from businesses for writing stories that presented these companies in positive light.

The issue of ethical reporting took centre stage at the ‘Learning and Relearning Journalism’ Talk show session held on Dec. 11, as panellists and participants at the Mekong Media Forum discussed how different histories, political systems and societies have shaped different education systems when it comes to media and journalism in the Mekong region.

The four-day forum, which brought together some 200 participants from across the six-country region, ended Saturday in this northern Thai city.

While formal journalism education is useful as a starting point, panellists agreed that it was not essential.

Jeff Hodson, a journalist and regional media trainer, said it “will have to be incorporated in any form of journalism training programme. How can you report the news fairly and without bias unless you do have ethics?”

But other speakers disagreed. “If ethics is something that you only start learning about in journalism school, and only there, then I would say it’s too late and too isolated,” said Daniel Hirschler, project manager and country coordinator in Laos for DW-AKADEMIE, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s training institute.

“Ethics, you learned when you were a child. You don’t take money from people if you don’t deserve that. You don’t learn this at school, and you don’t learn this in the newsroom also,” said Nguyen Ngoc Tran, a journalism professor at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.

But Hirschler argues that the ethical dilemma in reporting is not unique to the Mekong region: journalists in developed countries in the West face the same issues. He related an incident where a Swedish journalist exposed a fundamental mechanical flaw while test-driving a new Mercedes Benz motorcar, which the company had tried to cover up.

“The reason why this came out quite late is most of the motor journalists in Europe are usually sent to Arizona with a detour to the Las Vegas casinos to test those cars, with I don’t know what (other incentives),” he said.

“The motor journal that this journalist was working for in Sweden had a clear code of conduct, a clear policy on this. If you don’t have this policy in the university where you study, or the radio station you work for, or in the country you live in, then it would be difficult to establish strong ethics in journalism.”

On top of ethical concerns, the session also surfaced issues surrounding the inadequacy of journalism education – even at top academic institutions around the region – in dealing with real world challenges.

Hodson voiced a worrying trend where fresh journalism graduates were well-versed in the basics of journalism such as proper fact gathering and balance reporting, but were not practising it in the newsroom. “There’s a quota system that motivates reporters to fill their five stories for the week, so why get three sources if they can just get one and meet their quota?” said Hodson.

It is also important, Hodson said, to try to teach journalists that they “own the story” and can “create and shape the news as well instead of just always reacting to it”.

But panellists agreed that the socio-political situation on the ground in many of the countries in the Mekong region makes real-life newsroom experience and on-the-job training more relevant than academic training. Hirschler, for example, said “critical thinking” is more important than “any kind of curriculum that you can have or have not in any communications or mass media department”.

Vannaphone Sitthirath, coordinator of the Mekong Media Forum and a journalist from Laos, lamented the state of the media environment in Laos. ”That’s why I quit,” she said.

She attributed the situation in part to “economic pressure,” saying Lao journalists earn less than 100 U.S. dollars a month. “It’s sad that Lao journalists take money from organisations that invite us to do stories. It’s really sad. But how can I blame them?”

She confessed she had tried to quit her profession. “I asked myself, ‘Am I going to work as a journalist in Laos?’ It’s sad. So I gave up many times,” she said. But she kept coming back, she added, to rousing applause from the audience.

Vannaphone expressed hope the journalism course at the National University of Laos would bring much-needed changes to media ethics in her country while echoing in the same breath the opinions of the panellists at this session. “I don’t believe it will train you 100 percent to be a good journalist … I think a good journalist is in here,” she said, her hand gesturing toward her heart.

CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Dec 12 (TerraViva) – Yasmin Tang, executive director of Probe Media Foundation that co-organised the Mekong Media Forum, promised a “visual treat” to wrap up the proceedings at the end of the forum on Dec. 12. And a visual treat it was, as the Chiang Mai-based performing group Wandering Moon presented a theatrical extravaganza entitled ‘Reborn’.

With ingenious play on colours, lights and shadows, the troupe kept the audience enthralled as the four-day forum was brought to a close.

To be sure, the performance was as abstract as it was fascinating. Weaving lights in a multitude of striking colours; dancing cardboard cut-outs expertly wielded by puppeteers behind a shrouded veil; and a performer springing from her hiding place, an impossibly tiny light-box that lay in the foreground inconspicuously until that moment, midway through the show.

It was a shadow-puppet show with a difference. And it was a perfect, very appropriate, ending to the Mekong Media Forum. While considerably less abstract, the forum was no less fascinating.

Over the past three and a half days, a steady stream of participants – including sponsors, supporters, partners, speakers, delegates, fellows, volunteers, documenters, translators, technical staff and organisers – thronged the rooms and common areas at the conference venue. Comprising people from the six countries in the Mekong region – Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam – as well as a healthy dose of participants from outside the area, the myriad of different cultures and languages guaranteed discussions were often vibrant and colourful.

Behind the scenes, a flurry of activity as organisers scrambled to ensure the sessions ran smoothly. From translators and documenters, to technicians and volunteers, each quietly going unnoticed about their duties, preferring to let the speakers, delegates and issues take centre stage, in front of the spotlight.

The issues laid out during the Mekong Media Forum were important; these are issues that affect us directly. But, like the light-box in the foreground during the performance, these issues are often overlooked, especially by external audiences, but often, even by ourselves, as we get caught up in the more exciting, mainstream activities that demand our attention. And so we forget the marginalised, who lie unnoticed, even though they are right in front of our eyes.

‘Reborn’ speaks of unknown horrors, of bleeding hearts and free-flowing tears, reflecting the challenges faced by Mekong journalists. And as we turn the page, the pain and suffering transforms – with a little help – into joy and the freedom to take flight, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.

Likewise, the Mekong Media Forum has been a step forward, towards creating a desirable media environment at a time of social and economic change. Hopefully, it has inspired us to be “reborn”, as with the closing performance, in our struggles to overcome challenges facing the media in the region.

As the curtain closes on the Mekong Media Forum, we look forward to the birth of a new venue, from within, for Mekong journalists.

With one of the largest news agencies in the world taking a hit, I’m assuming other news agencies — and newspapers — have been feeling the heat as well. Is it getting too expensive to report the news? What, then, does the future hold for traditional media? I’m not going to go as far as saying citizen journalism, blogs and social new media et al will replace the media as we know it. There’s just too much crap on the internet and blogosphere. 

An alternative news platform is possible, but not in the near future. And not without some level of collaboration, professionalism and (goddamn this) a financially viable business model. 

WASHINGTON: The US news agency the Associated Press (AP) laid off dozens of employees on Tuesday as part of a plan to reduce its global payroll by 10 per cent this year, a union statement said.

The News Media Guild, which covers some 1,300 AP editorial and technology unit staffers in the United States, said it did not have an exact number of layoffs because management had not yet formally notified it of the move.

The Guild said it had been informed by members of more than 38 layoffs affecting Guild-covered managers, reporters, editors, photographers, and editorial assistants.

It said 20 jobs were cut at AP headquarters in New York and eight jobs in Puerto Rico. The Guild said it did not know how many managerial or non-US employees were let go.

“This is a very sad day for our AP colleagues and the public who relies on their important news work,” said News Media Guild president Tony Winton.

AP spokesman Paul Colford declined to comment on the reports of layoffs, but noted that AP president and chief executive Tom Curley outlined plans a year ago to cut payroll costs.

“We remain committed toward our goal of reducing the AP’s global payroll cost by 10 per cent in 2009,” Colford told AFP.

A hiring freeze has been in place at the AP and about 100 employees accepted a voluntary early retirement package earlier this year.

The Guild said the layoffs were the largest since 2006 when 100 technology workers were let go.

The AP, a cooperative which is owned by 1,500 daily US newspapers, employs around 4,000 people, including 3,000 editorial staff.

As US newspapers grapple with declining circulation, a loss of readership to free online media and a steep drop in print advertising revenue, the AP has been under pressure from some of its members to cut its rates.

The AP offered 30 million dollars in rate reductions to member newspapers in 2009 and plans 35 million dollars in rate reductions in 2010.

The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers owned by the Tribune Co. cut back on use of the AP for a week this month to test whether they can do without content from the US news agency.

The Tribune Co. has been looking for ways to cut costs and in October 2008, it gave the AP the required two-year notice that it might drop the service.

SINGAPORE, Jan. 22 (AMF) — The verdict is out on Internet regulation in Singapore, but opinions vary on how it will affect the relatively freer space for public discussion on the web.

The state-controlled media trumpeted as a step forward the government’s approval this month of 17 out of 26 recommendations designed to regulate the Internet in the areas of political content, use by minors and engagement with the public.

Netizens, however, paint a grave picture and see these regulations as a death grip.

The film industry and the Internet look set to continue to suffer the brunt of the government’s whip, according to announcements over the media regulation last week.

It all began when the Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (AIMS), commissioned by the Singapore government in April 2007, released a consultation paper in 2008 to regulate the Internet.

In a nutshell, the study aimed to look into the impact of new media on society and to make recommendations on how best to address regulatory issues regarding the Internet.

On Jan. 9, the government vetoed one-third of the proposals, including the decriminalisation of films by political parties, the removal of a registration requirement for individuals and political parties in generating online political content, and greater leeway for civil servants to voice opinions.

When the AIMS released the paper, the sole dissenting voice came from a group of 13 Singaporean bloggers.

Dubbed ‘Bloggers 13’ by the mainstream media, the hastily formed group cobbled together a counter-proposal for the government to maintain a “light touch” in policing the Internet. But apart from an acknowledgement of receipt, the group has not heard back from the government, said Alex Au, one of the 13 bloggers.

Curiously, the government has also decided against engaging citizens outside of current government platforms, despite reports in ‘The Straits Times’ in February 2007 that the incumbent People’s Action Party (PAP) government would be “mounting a quiet counter-insurgency against its online critics”. PAP MP Baey Yam Keng had advised that “it was necessary for the PAP to have a voice in cyberspace as there were few in the online community who were pro-establishment”.

Responding to individual blogs and forum postings will require a huge amount of resources and is “extremely difficult”, said Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Dr Lee Boon Yang. He likened this to “wandering the whole of the Internet just to debunk every single misleading or wrong posting”.

DOUBLE STANDARDS?

In spite of increased hype on citizen engagement, the government has elected to rely chiefly on its feedback unit, REACH, as its online source to engage young Netizens.

“Is the government going to say ‘no, we’re going to ignore them because you didn’t come into my room?’” said Alex Au, prominent Singaporean activist. “The government has to find ways of addressing some of the issues that are raised in other parts of the Internet, even if nobody brings it up within REACH. It could be in the form of a statement within REACH itself that addresses the stuff that is being talked about outside.”

Some six months after its high-profile launch graced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, REACH’s Facebook group has just over 1,730 members and less than 160 discussion topics, even though the 4.6 million population of this city-state enjoys one of the highest household Internet access rates in the region.

Even as the government’s feedback arm seemingly struggles to attract citizens to discuss national policies on its platforms, lively discussion elsewhere will be curtailed.

Under the freshly spelled-out rules, Singaporeans will be required to register websites with political content with the authorities “to ensure accountability”. Further, those working in the civil service will also be given the gag order, and are barred from voicing any political opinions.

The government will also move to amend the Films Act over the next two months to allow for films by political parties that are factual and objective, and do not dramatise or present a distorted picture.

An independent advisory panel, to be chaired by Richard Magnus, a retired senior district judge and chairman of the Casino Regulatory Authority, will determine if political party films are allowed to be aired.

However, the Ministry for Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) said it will retain its right to ban films that it finds are against public interest under Section 35 of the Films Act. Under Singapore law, the minister has the right to ban any film – without giving reasons for such action.

GIANT LEAP BACKWARD

Recognising the role of new media, the government had called for a harnessing of the free flow of information on the Internet during the 2006 general elections.

But blogs with political content had to register with authorities, and an outright ban was imposed on political podcasts streamed on the Internet. Notably, the Singapore Democratic Party, attempting to use podcasts to circumvent state-controlled media, suffered the brunt of this ban. Their Internet podcasts – the first time the medium was employed by political parties here – had to be taken off.

The party eventually suffered a drubbing at the polls, garnering a mere 23 percent of voters’ support in the Sembawang constituency in northern Singapore.

As PAP MP Denise Phua noted after the elections, the Internet is “85 percent against the government” and had to be “managed”.

In the aftermath of the elections, the government and the state-controlled Singapore Press Holdings launched an Internet offensive, starting no less than three web portals, buying popular websites for millions of dollars.

But even as the government trumpets the easing of rules with its acceptance of two-thirds of the proposals for regulating the Internet, critics say the noose might well have been tightened around new media in Singapore.

The news that Australia in December 2008 gave the nod to Internet regulation has resurrected the burning question of the necessity – and feasibility – of a similar move in Singapore.

The Australian government announced it will block sites with “pornography and inappropriate material”, but citizens have expressed concern that the country is taking a giant democratic leap backward in joining China on the list of Internet policing countries.

But while more than 2,000 Australians took to the streets to protest the federal Labor government’s plans to censor the Internet on Dec. 13, it has been a different scene in apathetic Singapore. (END/IPSAP/AMF/SJC/LLC/JS/220109)

We pray for this man, who was brave beyond measure in doing the simpliest thing — writing the truth.

Here is what he wrote in his newspaper column, just before the incident.

And Then They Came For Me

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 honour 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, recognising 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 labelled traitors, and if this be treachery, we wear that label proudly.

Many people suspect that The Sunday Leader has a political agenda: it does not. If we appear more critical of the government than of the opposition it is only because we believe that – pray excuse cricketing argot – there is no point in bowling to the fielding side. Remember that for the few years of our existence in which the UNP was in office, we proved to be the biggest thorn in its flesh, exposing excess and corruption wherever it occurred. Indeed, the steady stream of embarrassing expos‚s we published may well have served to precipitate the downfall of that government.

Neither should our distaste for the war be interpreted to mean that we support the Tigers. The LTTE are among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organisations ever to have infested the planet. There is no gainsaying that it must be eradicated. But to do so by violating the rights of Tamil citizens, bombing and shooting them mercilessly, is not only wrong but shames the Sinhalese, whose claim to be custodians of the dhamma is forever called into question by this savagery, much of which is unknown to the public because of censorship.

What is more, a military occupation of the country’s north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering “development” and “reconstruction” on them in the post-war era. The wounds of war will scar them forever, and you will also have an even more bitter and hateful Diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my countrymen – and all of the government – cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall.

It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government’s sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. In all these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.

The irony in this is that, unknown to most of the public, Mahinda and I have been friends for more than a quarter century. Indeed, I suspect that I am one of the few people remaining who routinely addresses him by his first name and uses the familiar Sinhala address oya when talking to him. Although I do not attend the meetings he periodically holds for newspaper editors, hardly a month passes when we do not meet, privately or with a few close friends present, late at night at President’s House. There we swap yarns, discuss politics and joke about the good old days. A few remarks to him would therefore be in order here.

Mahinda, when you finally fought your way to the SLFP presidential nomination in 2005, nowhere were you welcomed more warmly than in this column. Indeed, we broke with a decade of tradition by referring to you throughout by your first name. So well known were your commitments to human rights and liberal values that we ushered you in like a breath of fresh air. Then, through an act of folly, you got yourself involved in the Helping Hambantota scandal. It was after a lot of soul-searching that we broke the story, at the same time urging you to return the money. By the time you did so several weeks later, a great blow had been struck to your reputation. It is one you are still trying to live down.

You have told me yourself that you were not greedy for the presidency. You did not have to hanker after it: it fell into your lap. You have told me that your sons are your greatest joy, and that you love spending time with them, leaving your brothers to operate the machinery of state. Now, it is clear to all who will see that that machinery has operated so well that my sons and daughter do not themselves have a father.

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. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it.

Sadly, for all the dreams you had for our country in your younger days, in just three years you have reduced it to rubble. In the name of patriotism you have trampled on human rights, nurtured unbridled corruption and squandered public money like no other President before you. Indeed, your conduct has been like a small child suddenly let loose in a toyshop. That analogy is perhaps inapt because no child could have caused so much blood to be spilled on this land as you have, or trampled on the rights of its citizens as you do. Although you are now so drunk with power that you cannot see it, you will come to regret your sons having so rich an inheritance of blood. It can only bring tragedy. As for me, it is with a clear conscience that I go to meet my Maker. I wish, when your time finally comes, you could do the same. I wish.

As for me, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I walked tall and bowed to no man. And I have not travelled this journey alone. Fellow journalists in other branches of the media walked with me: most of them are now dead, imprisoned without trial or exiled in far-off lands. Others walk in the shadow of death that your Presidency has cast on the freedoms for which you once fought so hard. You will never be allowed to forget that my death took place under your watch. As anguished as I know you will be, I also know that you will have no choice but to protect my killers: you will see to it that the guilty one is never convicted. You have no choice. I feel sorry for you, and Shiranthi will have a long time to spend on her knees when next she goes for Confession for it is not just her owns sins which she must confess, but those of her extended family that keeps you in office.

As for the readers of The Sunday Leader, what can I say but Thank You for supporting our mission. We have espoused unpopular causes, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves, locked horns with the high and mighty so swollen with power that they have forgotten their roots, exposed corruption and the waste of your hard-earned tax rupees, and made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view. For this I – and my family – have now paid the price that I have long known I will one day have to pay. I am – and have always been – ready for that. I have done nothing to prevent this outcome: no security, no precautions. I want my murderer to know that I am not a coward like he is, hiding behind human shields while condemning thousands of innocents to death. What am I among so many? It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when.

That The Sunday Leader will continue fighting the good fight, too, is written. For I did not fight this fight alone. Many more of us have to be – and will be – killed before The Leader is laid to rest. I hope my assassination will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration for those who survive to step up their efforts. Indeed, I hope that it will help galvanise forces that will usher in a new era of human liberty in our beloved motherland. I also hope it will open the eyes of your President to the fact that however many are slaughtered in the name of patriotism, the human spirit will endure and flourish. Not all the Rajapakses combined can kill that.

People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niem”ller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of  Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niem”ller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niem”ller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:

First they came for the Jews

and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists

and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists

and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

If you remember nothing else, remember this: The Leader is there for you, be you Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled. Its staff will fight on, unbowed and unafraid, with the courage to which you have become accustomed. Do not take that commitment for granted.  Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: they are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter. As for me, God knows I tried.

And here is a report on it by the Sunday Leader Online.

At around  8 am on the morning of January 8 Lasantha Wickrematunge was at his residence in Nugegoda when he was to get a call from his wife Sonali Samarasinghe asking him to come to their home in Battaramulla as the domestic assistant there had taken ill.

He had arrived at their Battaramulla home at about 8.20. It was even as he alighted from his car that he was to receive a call from the Sunday Leader office that some people had observed suspicious activity and that he was being followed.

His driver who was at Nugegoda had been warned by one of his friends – a three wheeler driver, that two persons on a motor bike pared at a nearby boutique had acted suspiciously and no sooner than Lasantha had taken off in his car one had been heard to say to the other , Eya pittath wuna (he has left now). At which point one of the two who was smoking had butted out his cigarette and they had been seen following Lasantha’s car.

The driver had immediately gone to The Sunday Leader office in Ratmalana but finding that Lasantha had not arrived yet he was to quickly go into the office and call Lasantha on his mobile phone. Lasantha was in Battaramulla at the time. The driver’s mobile phone was in Lasantha’s car.

Followed

Lasantha and Sonali left for a nearby pharmaceutical shop to buy medicines for the servant. Even on their way, Sonali had noticed a motorbike following the car. She however lost sight of it, as a three wheeler had intercepted.

However, once they neared their house, a large black motorbike with two persons had whizzed past the car and had gone into the land next to the house which is a dead end in a suspicious and intimidating way.

Alerted Sonali had first alighted from the car and immediately pulled Lasantha into their house locking the doors. However after some time Lasantha was determined to go to office to commence writing his column and also to  take steps against this new threat. Since Sonali had to still see to some domestic matters he said he would go on ahead and that his wife should come in her car. He also said he wanted to investigate the whole motorbike incident and make some calls on the matter.

Wickrematunge, on his way to the office had asked his driver to meet him in Nugegoda. He handed over to him some documents and then proceeded towards office.

Deadly journey

It would turn out to be the deadliest ride to work he would ever take.

His wife meanwhile not 15 minutes after they parted was to hear the dreaded news and quickly rush to the Kalubowila Hospital. The driver too, received the news through an employee at the Leader office.

One of the people, who witnessed the attack on The Sunday Leader Editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge and volunteered to take him to the Kalubowila Hospital said that he was checking a stock of printing goods prepared for delivery that day when the incident happened.

He (name withheld on request) said he came out of his office on Attidiya Road, upon seeing a lot of activity on the road.

Black bikes

“I saw some motorbikes speeding off and people started to move towards a car that was parked on the other side of the road. I too walked towards the car and saw that the window on one side was smashed with damage to the main windscreen as well,” he said.

He had then peered into the vehicle and found a person lying across the two front seats.

“I saw that he was finding it difficult to breathe. Then I called on some of the people standing around to carry him to a van that was there. We carried him into the van. He was bleeding heavily from the head,” he said.

The eyewitness said that while Wickrematunge was being taken to hospital, his mobile phone, which he had been holding on to firmly, had started to ring.

Phone call

“The phone rang. Since I was holding the injured person with another, the person on the front passenger seat answered the phone and told the caller that if he knew the owner of the phone, to come to the Kalubowila Hospital immediately,” he said.

Amidst all the chaos, it was not till the van reached the hospital that they all realised that the injured man in the vehicle was none other than Lasantha Wickrematunge.

“We have always admired him as a fearless man who stood for the rights of the people. We were all sad to find out that it was this man who was shot,” the eyewitness said.

Nadhan, driver of the van that took Wickrematunge to the hospital said that he was on his way to Avissawella for a delivery when the van was held up in a traffic jam in Attidiya.

“We saw people surrounding a car, but they looked afraid to go near. They may have been afraid to get close as it was a shooting incident,” he said.

Nadhan said that while most people looked on, vehicles passed by without even stopping to have a second look.

Rushed to hospital

“We stopped to look and when we heard there was an injured person , we allowed the people to carry him to our van. Along with two other people and my sales manager, we drove straight to the Kalubowila Hospital,” he said.

Like the other eyewitnesses, Nadhan also recognised the victim only upon reaching the hospital.

“When Wickrematunge’s phone rang in the vehicle, we informed the caller of the incident.”

One of the others who saw the incident as Wickrematunge was being taken into the van was Lakmal Nanayakkara, who works at Irudina, The Sunday Leader’s sister paper. “I was in the bus getting ready to get off when the bus all of sudden got stuck  in traffic,” he said.

“First I thought it was an accident, then we realised that something else would have happened  when we saw a man dressed in dark trouser was taken into a van, injured. I saw his head move inside the car when the people opened the door. I saw the vehicle and called office and asked Mr. Mohan (Lal Piyadasa, editor of the Irudina) whether Mr. Lasantha was in office, whether his car was there. He said no. Then I told him that there was a shooting and Mr. Lasantha was being taken to hospital. I got off the bus and tried to get in the van that was taking him but I could not.”

Efforts failed

Director, Colombo South Teaching (Kalubowila) Hospital, Dr. Anil Jasinghe said that all efforts made by the medical staff at the hospital and the other specialists brought into help Wickrematunge were not fruitful due to the severe injuries sustained by the victim to his head.

After three hours of extensive surgery, Lasantha succumbed to his injuries at around 2.30 p.m. last Thursday (8).

Meanwhile, Police Media Spokesperson, SSP Ranjith Gunasekera told The Sunday Leader that the IGP had assigned four teams to investigate into Wickrematunge’s assassination.

He added that the teams have found some clues that would lead to the suspects. However, he said that he had not yet been given a detailed report, as the investigating teams did not want details to be revealed since it would hamper the progress of the investigation.

He said that SSP Mt Lavinia Police was heading the four teams.