PRAGOTI

Sri Lanka, has been in the midst of a civil war between bloodthirsty ethnic chaunivists - one adopting state militarism (the government) and the other a confirmed separatist terrorist force (the LTTE). The latter is facing defeat, and increasingly the naked face of the majoritarian state is coming to the fore as it gloats its impending victory and unleashes its atrocities on the press, the dissenters and the minorities (as usual).

One of those who was killed recently was a fearless editor named, Lasantha Wickramatunga, who took it to himself to be fearlessly anti-establishmentarian and to call a spade a spade. The Sunday Leader, which he edited, published this posthumous editorial, more or less implicating Mahinda Rajapaksa's regime in his murder.

Pragoti condoles the death of Lasantha Wickramatunga and presents three articles: a) A poignant editorial by Wickramatunga's newspaper, written "posthumously" by him, b) A commentary on press freedom (or the lack of it) in Sri Lanka, by Sukumar Muralidharan and c) An obituary of Wickramatunga by Sri Lankan journalist DBS Jeyaraj.