Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge (, ; 5 April 1958 - 8 January 2009) was a high-profile Sri Lankan journalist, politician, broadcaster, and human rights activist who was assassinated in January 2009.
Wickrematunge was the founder of The Sunday Leader newspaper and Leader Publications and was a virulent critic of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, and had been locked in a legal battle with Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was defense secretary at the time and was spearheading the battle against the LTTE rebels. His assassination sent shockwaves across the country, as he was one of the nation's most influential journalists and most-well-known political figures and raised questions about freedom of expression in the country. Wickrematunge's murder was widely condemned across the world. The Daily Mirror called it the "biggest blow" to media freedom in Sri Lanka, and the Editors Guild held the government responsible for the killing for its failure to stop attacks against media personnel. The government also expressed shock at the killing, pledging to do everything in its power to catch his killers. Wickrematunge had been on Amnesty International's endangered list since 1998, when anti-tank shells were fired on his house by unidentified assailants in a van.
Early life
Lasantha Wickrematunge was the youngest of six children born in Kotahena Colombo, to Chandra and Harris Wickrematunge, a prominent politician, who had served as a Municipal Councillor for 30 years and was a former Deputy Mayor. Wickrematunge was the grandnephew of George E. de Silva and Agnes de Silva, cousin of Minnette de Silva, Fredrick de Silva and Desmond de Silva. In his childhood, Wickrematunge attended St Benedict's College. He spent his adolescence in Britain, where he graduated high school and eventually returned to Sri Lanka, where he started law school.
Career
Political career Wickrematunge began his career as a lawyer, practicing as a defense attorney for eight years under Ranjit Abeysuriya. Whilst practicing law, Wickrematunge made his way into the political scene before entering into Journalism starting with The Island and Sun newspapers. Wickrematunge contested the 1989 Parliamentary election from a Colombo seat with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and then became the private secretary to the world's first female prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Wickrematunge then crossed parties, moving to the United National Party and was advisor to Ranil Wickremasinghe.
Journalism
In 1994 Wickrematunge started the Sunday Leader with his brother Lal Wickrematunge. In addition to Sunday Leader, Wickrematunge was the Editorial Board Director for the Sinhalese Sunday newspaper Iruresa (launched 2004) and the Wednesday English paper Morning Leader (launched 2005). All three were severely critical towards the government. He reported critically on both the government and the Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels, and the Leader soon became "well known as the island's best independent newspaper". He later stated that once the paper was started, he had intended to return to law, but found himself unwilling to give up journalism's excitement. He was also a writer for Time magazine at this time and was a political commentator while he hosted his broadcast programs including Good Morning Sri Lanka.
At the height of his career Wickrematunge was feared by senior ministers and the most powerful in the nation and political leaders on both sides at various times sought to persuade Wickrematunge into accepting political positions by offering him ministries of his choice. The paper quickly drew threats and attacks for its reporting on corruption by government ministers.
From 1994-2005, Wickrematunge was an ardent critic of the Chandrika Kumaratunga government. In 2000, Wickrematunge conducted an investigation into Kumartunga's education qualifications. Kumaratunga's curriculum vitae had stated that she was an alumna of the Sorbonne University. Wickrematunge challenged Kumaratunga to release her documentations of certification and went on to publish a letter from the university that stated Kumaratunga was never registered as a student. In May 2000, the government of Kumaratunga closed down the Sunday Leader after military setbacks in the war against LTTE in the north of the country. Wickrematunge filed a fundamental rights application with the Supreme Court, fought the closure and secured a court victory striking down the law allowing government to curb the fourth estate. In 2006, after Kumaratunga was ousted as President, she went on to form a friendship with Wickrematunge.
In the final stages of the civil war, Wickrematunge was a key figure in the human rights movement. Wickrematunge was known for his trademark phrase "unbowed and unafraid" inspired from the Invictus poem by William Ernest Henley which he used as his motto and philosophy. Wickrematunge was vocal about his frustrations by the issues faced by vulnerable populations and expressed his agitation against state terrorism. In addition to his contributions to marginalized communities, Wickrematunge actively spoke out against Sri Lanka's poverty and economic inequality. Wickrematunge largely impacted his Tamil audience who felt he supported and articulated their issues.
The Leader was particularly critical in its coverage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. In 2008, Mahinda Rajapaksa, furious over the paper's reporting, called Wickrematunge and shouted at him that "I will destroy you" if the paper's coverage did not change; the president had also described him as a "terrorist journalist".
In the weeks before Wickrematunge's death, a funeral wreath was delivered to him, as well as a copy of the newspaper reading "If you write you will be killed" in red paint. Wickrematunge was quoted as saying "The word fear is not in my vocabulary." Not wanting to endanger anyone else, Wickrematunge continuously refused to hire a bodyguard.
After the assassination of Wickrematunge, Leader Publications was sold over to a Rajapaksa associate and an unconditional apology was made to Gotabaya Rajapaksa for publishing a series of reports suggesting that he had made corrupt arms deals.
Broadcasting
During the early 1990s Wickrematunge hosted several popular broadcast television talk shows. Wickrematunge worked for TNL TV where he hosted his own nightly political debating segment. Several years in to his political programs with TNL, Wickrematunge was asked by MTV Channel (owned by the Maharajah Group) to host Good Morning Sri Lanka which he hosted till 2007.
Suranimala
In the late eighties, Lasantha Wickrematunge while working for Sirimavo Bandaranaike started a whistleblower column in The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) using the pseudonym "Suranimala".
Wickrematunge concealed his identity as Suranimala and soon it became the most widely read political column in any newspaper in Sri Lanka for its explosive, investigative revelations and Suranimala quickly became a thorn in the flesh of the Ranasinghe Premadasa government. Suranimala wrote on issues that were current and was known for his ability to publicize content and documents beyond the control of the government and for publishing intimate details such as what the president was served for dinner. On one occasion, he wrote of President Premadasa's proposals on devolution which had been submitted confidentially. In Wickrematunge's investigation's he had uncovered that "President Premadasa used four different colours of ink" to trace for leaks. Suranimala intentionally mentioned the colour of the ink used in the file copy which led to a crisis in the Presidential Secretariat.
At its inception there was a lot of intrigue in Sri Lanka of the identity of Suranamila. Both Wickrematunge as well as his editor therefore maintained confidentiality.
Wickrematunge took Suranimala with him when he started The Sunday Leader in 1994.
State surveillance and political coercion
During the Rajapaksa regime and the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War, Wickrematunge was the country's leading critic of the government and war effort and was the target of ongoing political persecution. Wickrematunge was subjected to government sponsored media scrutiny and campaigns depicting him as a "traitor". Wickrematunge condemned and spoke out against the treatment and oppression of the Sri Lankan Tamils and opposed Gotabaya Rajapaksa's war strategies and continually called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
Wickrematunge investigated corrupt military procurement deals and spoke out strongly for a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict and continued to debunk what he saw as "government propaganda" on the war. Wickrematunge exposed governmental waste, corruption and excess. Wickrematunge felt that while it was important to eliminate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam it was important also to respect the lives and rights of Tamil civilians. Wickrematunge was one of the country's only leading figures to speak out against the Sri Lankan government during the time of war and began to be viewed as "the single biggest stumbling block to all out massacre in the north".
State intelligence surveillance
Throughout the course of his career, Wickrematunge was under frequent surveillance by the Sri Lankan government's intelligence and was subject to phone tapping and regularly being trailed. Speaking to a media outlet, Wickrematunge said, "I consider these incidents an occupational hazard. They only strengthen my resolve to continue with my work". In 2008 Wickrematunge's name was added to a "Traitor list" that was published on the Defense Ministry's official website and State Intelligence Service (Sri Lanka) began surveilling Wickrematunge's phone lines. Intelligence Service documents leaked to media outlets alleged that Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered the tapping of phones including that of several high-ranking politicians in the opposition and the phone of Wickrematunge on the basis of "National Security".
Allegations of espionage
Allegations that Wickrematunge had worked as an espionage agent for Indian intelligence outfit the Research & Analysis Wing, circulated after it was reported that Wickrematunge had been seen meeting a diplomat attached to the Indian High Commission in Colombo at 1:00 in the morning where he had been followed by Sri Lanka's intelligence services. The claim alleged Wickrematunge was followed and seen entering the home of a foreign agent after his meeting with then president Mahinda Rajapaksa. The government had suspected Wickrematunge of revealing information disclosed to him by the president to intelligence agents of a foreign government from this visit. The indications of Wickrematunge working as an espionage were however unsubstantiated and there has never been any evidence presented that supported the allegation and Wickrematunge's close coterie of friends and colleagues have denied this claim.
Timeline of attacks
In November 1982, Wickrematunge's friendship with Vijaya Kumaratunga led to the Criminal Investigation Department interrogating him for possible Naxalite connections. During the J. R. Jayewardene Government, several political activists who had supported the opposition candidate during the election were arrested and detained under various charges. Kumaratunga who had played a leading role in the election supporting Presidential candidate Hector Kobbekaduwa, was wrongfully arrested on false charges and on conspiracy of being a Naxalite and kept in solitary confinement for a period of three months in prison. Wickrematunge who was working at the Sun newspaper as a sub editor, was brought in for questioning by the Criminal Investigation Department over his close ties with Kumaratunga. During interrogation, Wickrematunge was accused of being a Naxalite based on his relationship with Kumaratunga. The interrogation led Wickrematunge to quit his job at the Sun newspaper.