Widow of Slain Sri Lankan Journalist Describes His Murder

Sri Lankan journalist Sonali Samarasinghe, widow of slain Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickramatunga, described his assassination as she accepted the National Press Club’s 2009 International Freedom of the Press Award given to her husband posthumously on April 21.

“Lasantha and I were used to being threatened,” said Samarasinghe, who also worked for The Sunday Leader in Colombo, Sri Lanka. “Over the years, he had been followed, dragged from his car, attacked with clubs and nearly arrested for what he wrote.”

Just three weeks after their wedding, Wickramatunga was ambushed just five minutes from his office, she said. “It was a commando-style operation conducted by eight men doubled up on four motorcycles. They shattered the windshield and windows of the car. When they finished, witnesses found Lasantha slumped in the front seat bleeding from a blow to his head.”

Wickramatunga knew he was in danger. In the next edition of The Leader after his death, a column he had written with orders to be printed if he were killed described who was responsible. That column has been circulated around the world as an example of courageous journalism. The original copy is displayed at the Newseum.

“Lasantha was a thorn in the side of the ruling party,” Samarasinghe said, “Week after week, his newspaper exposed corruption and graft in government and gave voice to minorities.”

Samarasinghe is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and said she cannot return to Sri Lanka as long as the government of Mahinda Rajapakse is in power. Her husband was the 14th journalist murdered in Sri Lanka in five years. Some 15 senior journalists are now in exile and at least 20 more are waiting to be evacuated to safety, she said.

The event was co-sponsored by the National Press Club’s International Correspondents and Freedom of the Press committees and by the American Chapter of the International Communications Forum.

Video of Samarasinghe’s full address to the Club and her one-on-one conversation with former Club President Gil Klein (http://cfc.press.org/video/player.cfm?id=72 ) will be posted on the Club’s Web site.