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Unvarnished Truth Can Kill You
“The free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.”—Lasantha Wickramatunga (1958-2009),
outspoken editor, The Sunday Leader,
assassinated Jan. 8 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
From his own editorial-obituary. Wickramatunga had been highly critical of the government’s war against the Tamil Tigers.
outspoken editor, The Sunday Leader,
assassinated Jan. 8 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
From his own editorial-obituary. Wickramatunga had been highly critical of the government’s war against the Tamil Tigers.
(“And Then They Came for Me.” Full text of Wickramatunga’s posthumous editorial.)
(See BBC story on killing.)
(Thanks to alert WORDster Doug Cumming.)
(See BBC story on killing.)
(Thanks to alert WORDster Doug Cumming.)
Today in History
2008: Actor Heath Ledger found dead in his NYC apartment; 1998: Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty as Unabomber; 1997: Madeleine Albright confirmed as first female U.S. secretary of state; 1973: LBJ dies; 1973: Roe v. Wade; 1968: “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” premiers on NBC; 1947: 1st commercial TV station west of the Mississippi; 1944: Allies land at Anzio; 1912: Bridge to Florida Keys opens; 1905: Russian Revolution begins with “Bloody Sunday”; 1840: British colonists reach New Zealand
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