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Groundviews

Author: Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa

Year
Month
Colombo, Human Rights, Media and Communications, Politics and Governance

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,…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 09/23/202309/24/2023
Colombo

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 06/02/202106/03/2021
Colombo, Features, Identity, Politics and Governance, Politics and Governance

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 02/02/202102/02/2021
Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Politics and Governance

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 09/26/202009/28/2020
20th Amendment, Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Elections, Media and Communications, Politics and Governance

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 09/10/202009/20/2020
Colombo, Development, Economy, Politics and Governance

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 06/15/202006/15/2020
Colombo, Media and Communications

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 06/15/202006/15/2020
Colombo, Politics and Governance, Youth

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.…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 06/08/202006/11/2020
Anuradhapura, Development, Environment, Media and Communications, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Puttalam

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 03/25/2019
International, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Politics and Governance, Religion and faith

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.…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 03/20/2019
Human Rights, Issues, Science and Technology

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 07/20/201808/03/2021
Corruption, Issues, Media and Communications, Politics and Governance

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 07/08/201808/03/2021
Human Rights, Issues, Media and Communications, Science and Technology

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,…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 04/10/201808/03/2021
Colombo, Media and Communications

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 02/21/201802/21/2018
Colombo, Development, Economy, Identity, Peace and Conflict, Political philosophy, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Poverty

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…

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa on 12/08/201712/08/2017

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