The Online Safety Act: A Trojan Horse for Authoritarianism
The draft of Sri Lanka’s Online Safety Act, published last week, is draconian, dangerous, and it should come as no surprise, also dumb. I’ve not studied any vocal support of the draft,…
Author: Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
Qadri Ismail: In Memoriam
Prof. Ismail (Qadri) was one of the earliest champions of or some other platform, would be sent, and prior to publication, we exchanged some thoughts over. This is a polite way of…
The Defence Secretary and the President
Photo Courtesy of BBC News Sri Lanka is led by a man who has, by his admission, two faces. In a more democratic avatar is Gotabaya Rajapaksa the President. Here, the individual…
The Fearful President
“If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.” — Ramsay, Articles penned on recently by Jayadeva Uyangoda, Asanga Welikala and Gehan Gunatilleke as well as elsewhere, by…
The End of Free and Fair Elections
The proposed 20th amendment will be the death of free and fair elections in Sri Lanka. The study of political communications and digital propaganda for over a decade leaves no room for…
PODCAST: Conversation with Anushka Wijesinha on economic, the pandemic & life under lock-down in Sri Lanka
In an on-going series of podcasts with individuals in Sri Lanka, I caught up with economist Anushka Wijesinha to talk about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Sri Lanka as well…
WhatsApp & Groundviews: The end of updates
Updates over WhatsApp groups, pegged to content published on this site and a plethora of issues related to them, was started in 2016. Started off as groups where all subscribers could exchange…
PODCAST: Conversation with Ambika Satkunanathan on police brutality in Sri Lanka
Image courtesy by Human Rights Watch. The murder of George Floyd in the United States has in the past week resulted in a renewed focus on Police violence, torture, brutality and impunity.…
The ecology of an issue: ‘Save Wilpattu’ on Facebook and Twitter
When over the weekend, senior journalist Amantha Perera sent a link to a post on Facebook asking if it was one that was popular, the answer took me into a brief study…
Terrorism in Aotearoa
Do you love New Zealand, asked the extremely inebriated young white man and his companion as they suddenly blocked my path at the Octagon, a few weeks after I arrived in Dunedin.…
On Facebook’s New Misinformation Policy for Sri Lanka
20 July 2018 Colombo, Sri Lanka Recent news reports have surfaced noting that Facebook will be proactively taking steps to remove misinformation that could lead to people being physically harmed. Though long…
Chinese Whispers: On Corruption and the Hambantota Port
On July 2, 2018, Hiru TV aired footage from two press conferences hosted by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) during its 6:55 pm broadcast. During the press conference, the members of…
Open letter to Facebook: Implement Your Own Community Standards
10 April 2018 Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dear Mark, In solidarity with and support of a letter signed by leading civil society organisations from Myanmar addressed to you recently, we, the undersigned,…
New editors. Plus ça change.
Image from I am very pleased to announce that Raisa Wickrematunge has taken over as Editor-in-Chief of – earlier the same year. Raisa and Amalini share a range of skills, experience and interests…
Vijay Nagaraj: Contributions to public discourse in many guises
Vijay Nagaraj, who passed away in a tragic car accident in August, was someone I interacted with for around six years. We didn’t meet regularly, yet when we did, we carried on…