Student journalist escapes Sri Lankan censorship
Ruan Pethiyagoda wrote for The Sunday Leader until his editor was assassinated
By Aubrey Eyre
Sophomore Ruan Pethiyagoda, 24, plans to return to Sri Lanka after completing his journalism degree.
Journalism is not typically viewed as a field of work where people have to fear for their lives. But that’s not the case in Sri Lanka, where journalists are not nearly so safe.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism,” said Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge in an editorial published by The Sunday Leader, Sri Lanka’s most widely circulated independent weekly newspaper.
Ruan Pethiyagoda
Sophomore Ruan Pethiyagoda, age 24, previously wrote for The Sunday Leader.
Pethiyagoda, a Seattle University journalism major, first took an interest in politics by observing his uncle, Gamini Dissanayake, who had held positions in the Sri Lankan government since 1977.
As Pethiyagoda began working for The Sunday Leader in 2007, writing became his life.
“It was obsessive and expensive,” Pethiyagoda said. “The work I was doing often cost more than my salary, but I loved it. It was like an addiction.”
Dissanayake, along with Lasantha Wickrematunge, Ruan’s former editor, started The Sunday Leader together. When a terrorist suicide bomber killed Dissanayake in 1994, his family sold the newspaper, handing its management to Wickrematunge.
“[Wickrematunge] wasn’t one to back down,” Pethiyagoda said. “They couldn’t scare him because he knew what he was saying was right and he would fight them on it.”
In an editorial Wickrematunge by that was published after his death in Jan. 2009, he confronted the issue of political corruption by addressing the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
“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,” the editorial said.
As Pethiyagoda explained, his editor died just a few days before a court trial where Wickrematunge was expected to prove the truth behind a series of articles exposing details implicating Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the president’s brother. The secretary was allegedly involved in scandals concerning multimillion dollar laundering operations, illegal Chinese bank accounts, London-based dummy corporations and secondhand Soviet military aircraft.
“The medical examiner’s report showed [Wickrematunge] had been killed by a nail-embellished iron pole rammed into his head, yet the final statement said he had died of natural causes,” Pethiyagoda explained.
For Pethiyagoda, Wickrematunge was more than a boss—he was a role model, a leader and a friend.
“Working for him and for [The Sunday Leader] was like someone here getting to go work for The New York Times,” Pethiyagoda said. “I fell for journalism because of him.”
Much like his boss, Pethiyagoda wrote many articles exposing corruption and foul play in successive administrations. While most of the evidence for such issues has allegedly been covered up, none of them have been successfully proven false by the government. “Never once in these 15 years has anyone proved us wrong or successfully prosecuted us,” said Wickrematunge in his last editorial.
“[Ruan] directly understood the purpose and danger behind working for us,” said Sonali Wickrematunge, co-editor of The Sunday Leader and widow of the paper’s former editor. “But things have gotten much worse since we left.”
As Sonali explained it, her husband had been the backbone of independent journalism in Sri Lanka. With him gone, she thinks journalists are finding it harder to speak out.
“More journalists are at risk now. The whole fabric of the resistance put out by journalists has begun to fall apart,” Sonali said. “There is no need for more journalists to die.”
Even without Wickrematunge or his wife, The Sunday Leader continues to cover the news and expose the truth in controversial issues.
Pethiyagoda plans to return to Sri Lanka as soon as he graduates so he can take part in the struggle for government change.
“I want to go back and write there again,” Pethiyagoda said. He does not intend to return to work for The Leader.
courtesy: Seattle University Spectator
7 Comments
Mr Ruvan Pethiyagoda
Noble Eight fold path put together by Lord Buddha has "Samma Vaccha", right speach as the 1st step in a disciplined life whether in public or in private. Lord Buddha adhered to this truth from the very beginning of time when he aspired for the buddhahood as the bodhisatva. After 2500 thousand years people who practice the noble eight fold path live happy and free lives.
Right speach involes
1.It has to be the truth arrived at after much investigation.
2.There is a right time to utter this truth.
3.It has to be to be benificial to every one concerned.
4.and approved by the wise.
All four have to be fulfilled at every moment to be of any use to you or others.
See for yourself where journalists or any others have got in to trouble and subjected to the displeasure of the Govt and masses, you will find at least one of the above missing.
Good luck with your journalism carrier in SL.
Ruan,
I wish you for a wonderful career. I am sad that you, a young and enthusiastic man, lost a wealth of resources for your career at Jaffna Public Library. Your great uncle Gamini D. didn't want you to use those resources. He broke the heart of a lot of enthusiastic youngsters like you. Hope you will not do the same.
Ruan:
At least we can be happy that the money your Uncle steel from Mahaweli Project and natural resources in Sri Lanka are been used to educate family members like you.
The corruption started by your Uncle is so great that still there are children in certain areas of Mahaweli Project suffering from malnutrition.
We wish that you will have some food to eat.
Of course journalists are not angels or bodhisatvas. In fact there are shortcomings in all such professions not to mention politicians and even the modern day clergy.
Journalist and writers play an important role in informing and revealing the hidden aspects of society to the ordinary people. Independent media is required for any functioning democracy so that truth and various shades of opinion could be expressed and people can think through and decide freely.
Hence it is good and rather surprising that this educated young man has chosen the difficult path as opposed to being a sycophant and hypocrite and living in comfort in the west.
Doe snot your great uncle Gamini D as accused of huge corruptiosn under Mahaveli Project? What happened to all that Money? Is part of that money spent in your education in USA? or what happened to Gamini D's Huge Estates in Australia? Are they still there? So much for your anti corruption drive. Oh I nearly forget isn't that Gamini d's thugs burned down the Jaffna Library in when the District Council elections were on. We Sinhalse were cursed from those days from Corrupt , Chauvinist policies of JRJ, GAMINI D gang. American Journalists singing hosanna's to you guys do not aware all that I think. (For that matter Nveen Dissa's position among rajapaksha government is also a concern.) The corrupt stays in every government whether it is SLFP or UNP. The Unfortunate truth.
KKL refers to the Buddha's teaching of Right (or Perfect) Speech , and claims that those who have been harassed (or worse) by the government for exercising their right to free speech have only themselves to blame for not perfecting their speech before speaking.
The sentiment that "where journalists or any others have got in to trouble and subjected to the displeasure of the Govt and masses, you will find at least one of the above [factors of Right Speech] missing" caught my attention for two reasons:
1. Because I feel it is wrong to use religious teachings (whatever the faith involved) in a selective and incorrect way to justify fundamental violations of the norms of civilised society.
2. Because from comments on forums such as these, and statements in other media, I have a sense that this sentiment that all those whom the state targets for harrasment somehow brought it on themselves is quite widely held. It may even be one of the reasons why Sri Lankan's are willing to tolerate quite serious abuses of media freedom.
The Buddha's teaching on Right (or Perfect) Speech (samma vaca) actually defines this as speech that abstains from: falsehoods (musavada veramani), slander (pisunaya vacaya veramani), harsh speech (pharusaya vacaya veramani), idle chatter (samphappalapa veramani). For those who are interested in learning more about this, an excellent exposition on this topic has been written by Bikkhu Bodhi and can be found @ http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html#ch4
However, setting aside the incorrect definition of Right Speech, the Noble Eight Fold Path taught in Buddhism also includes, Right Action which includes the idea of abstinence from harming living beings.
So does the harassment of journalists happen because of they have failed to achieve perfection of in their speech, or because those in government have failed to achieve perfection in their actions?
Sri Lanka needs champions of truth who will both exercise the right to free speech but also respect the responsibilities that come with such a right. Ensuring that one's speech satisfies the four factors of the Buddha's teaching on Right Speech, is one way of ensuring that these responsibilities are met. It is also important to remember that both the right to free speech and the responsibilities that come with that right apply equally to journalists, politicians, public servants and even individual members of society.
Sri Lanka also needs her government (whatever the political hue) that has zero-tolerance for attacks on those who exercise their right to free speech, instead of tacitly condoning such attacks or even directly executing them.
You can be writing from outside Sri Lanka. If he goes he has to compromise.
You do not want to die. Journalist have to survive to expose the evil.
Stanislaus