We would like our children and grandchildren to be pleased with and learn positively from all that goes on before, during and after the election, all that is printed, and all that is said (and the way it is said) in the media and at meetings, and all that is done.

If this is done, automatically all national (and international) law will have been observed without recourse to various tricks (which we being intelligent Sri Lankans are capable of) to circumvent doing what is correct! More...Discuss this story Published: Fri Jan 15 13:20:57 EST 2010

On Jan. 8, the media community held vigils to commemorate the first death anniversary of pioneering editor Lasantha Wickremathunge, killed by still unidentified assassins in 2009.

Four days later, on Tuesday, Dayaselle Liynagee, a senior reporter at the Lankadeepa, one of the country’s widely circulated, privately owned vernacular newspapers, resigned, reportedly under pressure from some political forces over a controversial report she wrote.

Then on Jan. 13, two journalists at ‘The Sunday Leader’ reported getting mailed death threats, after which the weekly newspaper’s premises were searched by police. On this day, too, albeit on a positive note, Jayaprakash Tissainayagam, a Tamil journalist, incarcerated since March 2008, was released on bail. He had been found guilty of endangering national security and sentenced to 20 years in jail in August 2009. More... Discuss this story Published: Fri Jan 15 23:04:05 EST 2010

Lawyers for the men were informed late Thursday that they would be released under strict conditions and planned secret hearings to determine if they posed a threat to Canada would not be held.

"The CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) has decided not to pursue detention for these individuals," CBSA spokeswoman Faith St. John told AFP. More... Discuss this story Published: Fri Jan 15 20:38:04 EST 2010