An extraordinary editorial appeared in the Sri Lankan Sunday Leader newspaper on the 11 January. Written by the editor he predicted his own murder which happened shortly after he wrote it.
The Guardian published an edited version on Tuesday. It makes chilling reading and demonstrates the risks taken by journalists in in certain countries. http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/editorial-.htm What makes this particularly sobering is that Lasantha Wickrematunga was a friend of the President of Sri Lanka and states that both he and the President know who will order the murder. I have taken the following extract from the Guardian article. Please take a look – it should remind all of us of the importance of the rule of law.
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.
Does this mean that you will now ‘see sense’ and not use draconian legislation against ‘Plane Stupid’ which hinders their right to ‘free speech’ and lawful protest ? You have to practise what you preach, after all, and ‘walk the talk’…
We shall see…
I think this is very telling, in Sri Lanka journalists are being murdered when they dare report the facts.
Here in the UK, however? Nope, not a bit of it. The one purpose of freedom of speech or the press is to invade peoples private lives.
I would agree with any who would argue that the comparrision between murder and churnalism might be a tad extreme, but I think it makes my point.
Its why the press is breaking up, and good riddance to it.
***
Bedd Gelert, free speech does not mean stopping people from using a service, whatever it may be. And as far as I can see the PS’rs have been very effective in getting their message out.
Lasantha was a critic of the governments war with the Tamil rebels. The war has been talen to barbaric heights. Videos of the barbaric acts of the Sri Lankan soldiers are circulating in the web.
Recently after the capture of Kilinochi, army found that the 250000 civilians have moved out with the rebels. However the Sri Lankan soldiers did find interesting memorabilia to celebrate – Dead bodies of fallen female rebels stripped and captured in video. Vidoes of the bodies being stripped and mutilated were shot by soldiers using mobile phone and were sent to friends. One such video shows burning and mutilation of the private parts of the bodies of few female rebels by Sri Lankan soldiers.
http://desicritics.org/2009/01/09/064957.php
Some 20 years ago I met a Sri Lankan student who was terrified even in the heart of England. She told me there were groups in some universities who were determined they wouldn’t finish their studies, one way or another.
I was shocked by her revelations. She didn’t finish her studies, and had to move to the US, if I remember correctly.
Yes, transparency and the rule of law is most important.
http://paulflynnmp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/01/steel-blow.html
Ah, Future Heathrow must be thinking they’ve got their money’s worth today…
One does wonder where the brave warriors of our own press would be under such a system. Might it be considered impolite to suggest that Dacre, rather than railing against an authority for the right to publish the contents of celebrities underwear drawers, might instead have taken the cushy government job when it was offered?
We of course cannot know for certain how people will behave under stress, and it might be that the fire of genuine oppression might bring out some good in our own domestic journalists. It’s not very likely, though, is it?