Called "the voice from beyond the grave"
...and for once, with some reason.
Here is a news story from Sri Lanka that has stayed with me through the week. The editor of the Sri Lankan newspaper The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was shot in the head last Thursday by two gunmen. The Leader is known as Sri Lanka's best independant newspaper, and is frequently critical of both the government and the insurgent Tamil Tigers.
Some days earlier, he wrote this editorial, which was then published this past Sunday, under the headline "And then they came for me." (In case this link breaks, an edited version is available at The Guardian.)
It's a remarkable story, and the editorial is a passionate paean to independant journalism. I hope it will carry Wickrematunge's name into history.
Here is a news story from Sri Lanka that has stayed with me through the week. The editor of the Sri Lankan newspaper The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was shot in the head last Thursday by two gunmen. The Leader is known as Sri Lanka's best independant newspaper, and is frequently critical of both the government and the insurgent Tamil Tigers.
Some days earlier, he wrote this editorial, which was then published this past Sunday, under the headline "And then they came for me." (In case this link breaks, an edited version is available at The Guardian.)
It's a remarkable story, and the editorial is a passionate paean to independant journalism. I hope it will carry Wickrematunge's name into history.