Voice from the Grave

Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor of Sri Lanka's Sunday Leader, was assassinated on Jan 8th this year. He wrote an editorial piece about his impending murder, which he believed could happen any time. He had the option to walk out but he chose to stand for his principles.

Click here to read his last editorial, which was published 3 days after his murder.

Excerpts:

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 last few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print institutions have been burned, 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.

Many people and friends asked him to move away from the field of journalism in Sri Lanka and move to safer places. Yet, he did not bow. He stood up for what he believed in. In the article, he explains why.

Read the complete editorial which turned out to be his last editorial, unfortunately. Link courtesy: Karthik J via e-mail.