{"id":118293,"date":"2014-01-12T00:11:05","date_gmt":"2014-01-11T18:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=118293"},"modified":"2014-01-17T03:23:19","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T21:53:19","slug":"wither-media-five-years-after-lasantha-was-slain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wither-media-five-years-after-lasantha-was-slain\/","title":{"rendered":"Wither Media Five Years After Lasantha Was Slain?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By \u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Two questions have been posed by journalist Hafeel Farisz on the subject of Lasantha Wickremathunge<\/span><\/a>: Has Lasantha\u2019s journalistic panache evolved into a more vibrant and potent form of media, or have we been left still fighting to sift through the rubble after his death? What does it mean to the rule of law and the right of the public to be informed, when an editor of a national newspaper is brutally murdered a stone\u2019s throw from a High Security Zone, with not a single person found responsible for the murder?<\/i><\/p>\n

Farisz believes that the answers to these questions \u2018will help unravel the many strands that truth might possess and help understand the bigger dynamics of democracy that prevail in the country as of now\u2019.\u00a0 He believes also that his death should not be mourned and instead his legacy demands celebration.<\/p>\n

The last is a personal view and a subjective assessment of legacy worth. Nothing wrong in that.\u00a0 It is something applicable to anyone who has died whatever the circumstances of death.\u00a0 The questions, however, are pertinent.\u00a0 Let\u2019s consider them.<\/p>\n

Lasantha had panache, few would disagree. \u00a0He got stories that made waves.\u00a0 He dug deep into things that others didn\u2019t dare touch or just could not.\u00a0 There was vibrancy and potency.\u00a0 Then again, he was selective.\u00a0 There was a lot of frilling.\u00a0 He got the cheers from his readership because they for the most part shared his political positions, especially his party color.\u00a0 He was also cheered by fellow-travelers who shared his pet peeves.\u00a0 He benefitted posthumously from those associations and the accolades showered on him by people who found it a useful way of feathering their own nests.\u00a0 In that rush to make political capital these individuals including those near and dear did Lasantha the supreme injustice by penning in his name a from-the-grave editorial.\u00a0 Peruse his work and you will easily notice the difference in style.<\/p>\n

He was selective and conscious of the costs and benefits to party, political project and preferred outcomes.\u00a0 He was effective.\u00a0 His relentless pursuit of Thilanga Sumathipala bore fruit. And yet, once Thilanga plonked himself in the UNP camp, he went silent.\u00a0 He drew from the adage \u2018enemy\u2019s enemy is friend\u2019 and this saw him bed with less than savory creatures in the political firmament including the LTTE.<\/p>\n

Through it all, however, Lasantha was not apologetic.\u00a0 He made no bones about his preferences or rather didn\u2019t have to. Everyone knew.<\/p>\n

These histories frame him squarely.\u00a0 His vibrancy and potency likewise are qualified by his politics which include loyalty, selectivity and obviously conspicuous silences.\u00a0 So when we consider the \u2018now\u2019 of media and ask if our \u2018today\u2019 is less or more vibrant and potent, the issue spills over everything that \u2018Lasantha\u2019 means and has been taken to mean since he was assassinated.\u00a0 If, on the other hand, such things are assessed by consistency, panache, effectiveness and rigor of taking on particular regimes (different from critique of regimes in general) then the benchmark is not too high.\u00a0 Too often courage and panache are assessed in terms of the target of the particular journalist. \u00a0\u00a0Throw in venom and then you are champion in the eyes of political friends.\u00a0 If one is sober, is focus on policy rather than individual and still distance oneself from the benefitting party and that\u2019s not enough.\u00a0 Not enough panache, not enough courage.\u00a0 No, one has to attack regime and<\/i> stand with opposition.<\/p>\n

For the record, Lasantha did bite his political enemies, but left corporate crime strictly alone.\u00a0 He picked his fights, as do others, for whatever reasons.\u00a0 He was not a \u2018bring it on, bring it all on\u2019 kind of person.\u00a0 \u00a0On the other hand we have many who would never even dare whisper, even in secret, those words, \u2018bring it on\u2019.\u00a0 Comfort zone journalists have always been the majority.\u00a0 Lasantha was an exception.<\/p>\n

In short there\u2019s always been navel gazing and always been look-in-the-eye probe.\u00a0 Farisz himself has taken bulls by the horn, so to speak.\u00a0\u00a0 The Ravaya<\/i>, then and now, framed by ideology more than party preferences of course, does it well.\u00a0 Thisaranee Gunasekera writes as though she\u2019s never had a happy week in over thirty years, but her critique is as sharp as anyone\u2019s.\u00a0 Emil Vander Poorten sticks to his guns, powered by his own ideological and political preferences.\u00a0\u00a0 There\u2019s no lack of courage in either.\u00a0 That there are no takers for other reasons (for example their political histories and preferences) is a different matter altogether. As a tribe we are not richer or poorer in that sense. We are poorer because we have lost a colorful, and in many ways charming, fellow journalist.\u00a0 We are poorer because even if it was party politics that shaped his work there was courage in what he did; vibrancy and potency if you will. That rubs off.<\/p>\n

Farisz\u2019 second question is more important.\u00a0 Lasantha\u2019s killers are still at large. Any killer at large is a threat and an affront to the rule of law and law enforcement mechanisms.\u00a0 When a journalist is murdered and the killer roams free then indeed the right to information is compromised to boot.\u00a0 Lasantha was unarmed.\u00a0 He was killed in cold blood, and as Farisz says, \u2018a stone\u2019s throw from a high security zone\u2019.\u00a0 Failure to apprehend the killers is a blot on the Government and a blot that continues to grow with each passing day, more so because we are talking of a system that was able to track down key terrorists overseas.\u00a0 It is not a can\u2019t-be-done thing.\u00a0 It appears more like a will-not-do thing.<\/p>\n

We have lived through many eras where governments of all political persuasion imposed limits by way of regulation and intimidation.\u00a0 The media has taken hits but has not turned over and died.\u00a0 That however is not comfort enough, not reason enough not to be perturbed and certainly no reason not to fight.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

If we want to celebrate Lasantha\u2019s life, then, we have to go beyond his legacy, recognize his humanity, his courage and his frailties, draw strength from what was best of the man and cross the boundaries he set himself.\u00a0 That\u2019s how issues embedded in Farisz\u2019 second questions can be addressed.<\/p>\n

For now, five years after he was slain, let us remember a man who lived in a country where many lived as though dead and who in death remains alive and gives breath to the living, regardless of differences and preferences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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