Amantha Perera
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PhDer @UniversitySA 🔎 journalism, Digi Threats|Digi Skills Strategist|Casual Academic @CQU| @CJTAsPac
m_b_r_amantha.perera@mymail.unisa.edu.au
Articles by Amantha Perera
When live news turns traumatic
Former MP Chalong Riewraeng, left, is seen looking relaxed during police questioning on Aug 10. (Photo: Newsnon Facebook page) The phone-in shooting confession by ex-Thai MP Chalong Riewraeng to a live YouTube show last month was rattling, if not surreal, for a country still reeling from a heartbreaking mass shooting that transpired just three days prior.
| Amantha Perera
When harm is just a phone ping away We got the opportunity to commemorate #WorldPressFreedomDay26 where it really matters, in the company of a group of courageous journalists resisting some of the most brutal repressive measures. This group of journalists from the Mekong region came together at the second stage of Centre for Journalism and Trauma Asia Pacific’s (CJT) fellowship on pushing back against Technology Facilitated Gender Based Violence (#TFGBV) and #HateSpeech.
If I am honest, I cannot go back home
In some parts of the world where I work, truth is a dangerous commodity, fatal even. You pay with your life in your pursuit. On #WorldPressFreedomDay it is an honour and privilege to stand in solidarity with all journalists and media professionals across the world in our unyielding dedication to telling the truth. This cannot be truer with our colleagues in the Asia Pacific Region who face up to some of the most repressive and dangerous media environments.
The day the highway of death opened, I was there
This was my first multi-day visit to areas under the control of the Tamil Tigers. It was the first week of April 2002, the rest of Sri Lanka, most of it at least, was getting ready to celebrate the traditional new year and the long holiday. I, on the other hand was laying plans to engage in my first in-depth series of stories from the areas controlled by the Tigers. Before that my experiences in Tiger-held areas had been short visits.
The attempt to tabloidize Lasantha’s legacy
Play Video PlayBack to start Show CaptionsFullscreen The attempt to tabloidize Lasantha’s legacy Amantha Perera Amantha Perera Adelaide University•650 followers Published Apr 4, 2026 Today is Lasantha’s birthday, he would have been 67 yrs old. It is hard for me to think of LW as 67. He will always remain that intensely wired editor whose first words when he met me any day were “what have you got me for bugger?” Most of my reporter’s life at The Sunday Leader was spent reporting on the war.
‘We will burn down the newsroom’: Online threats push Pacific journalists into silence
By Amantha Perera “We will burn down the Fiji Sun.” You sit down to start your workday and this is the first thing that flashes across your screen. Will you stay on and do your job as a reporter or consider fleeing? The tone and the content have become familiar to Iva Nataro, a senior journalist at the Fiji Sun newspaper. “People go to the extent of saying we will burn down the Fiji Sun office including everyone in it. They actually post this online.
Technology-facilitated threats are silencing Pacific journalists
“We will burn down the Fiji Sun.” You sit down to start your workday and this is the first thing that flashes across your screen. Will you stay on and do your job as a reporter or consider fleeing? The tone and the content have become familiar to Iva Nataro, a senior journalist at the Fiji Sun newspaper. “People go to the extent of saying we will burn down the Fiji Sun office including everyone in it. They actually post this online.
#digitalflakjacket #ai #africa #myanmar #amls2025sg #mediafreedom #freepress
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Going to school passing a mass grave, every day
It was almost as an afterthought that he added, “you know, I know this place very well, I used to go to school past this every day.” My friend and colleague was describing the daily journey that all of us took. His was ordinary in many ways, but extraordinary in others. Every day he had to disembark from the bus mid-journey, show his identity documents to the military personnel and move on if they allowed him. Where he was stopped not knowing what lies next now has become infamous.
🟡 Reporting historic war crimes in the age of #AI
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Trump’s approach to Southasia bolsters China’s regional sway
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, responds to a question as US President Donald Trump, right, looks on during a joint press conference at the White House, in February 2025. In India, Trump’s return to the White House is likely to embolden the entrenched Narendra Modi regime. IT HAD BEEN four years since Myanmar’s military junta seized power in a violent coup executed on 1 February 2021. Yet the day marking the coup in 2025 passed with hardly a blip on the international news tickers.
#whatsapp #srilanka
Amantha Perera PhD candidate, UniSA focusing on journalism & technology facilitated threats|Consultant/Skills Strategist|Public Speaker|Casual academic, CQUni| Ex-Dart Centre for Journalism & Trauma, Asia Pacific 21m Report this post Update on the cryptocurrency scam where my picture was used to lure targets.
How scammers are targeting…
Amantha Perera PhD candidate, UniSA focusing on journalism & technology facilitated threats|Consultant/Skills Strategist|Public Speaker|Casual academic, CQUni| Ex-Dart Centre for Journalism & Trauma, Asia Pacific 3h Edited Report this post This week an old image of mine was used in an online scam. Sanjana details below 👇 how the image and content was not selected randomly but rather it was part of a sophisticated scam.
Ahimsa Wickrematunge letter to BASL
Amantha Perera PhD candidate, UniSA focusing on journalism & technology facilitated threats|Consultant/Skills Strategist|Public Speaker|Casual academic, CQUni| Ex-Dart Centre for Journalism & Trauma, Asia Pacific 13m Report this post "Indeed, my father was a lifetime member of the Bar Association until his life was ended in the most widely condemned state sponsored assassination in Sri Lanka on January 8, 2009. He was a loving father, husband, son and uncle. His newspapers were read worldwide.
controversial film challenges authorship of famous…
Amantha Perera PhD candidate, UniSA focusing on journalism & technology facilitated threats|Consultant/Skills Strategist|Public Speaker|Casual academic, CQUni| Ex-Dart Centre for Journalism & Trauma, Asia Pacific 6h Edited Report this post The new documentary The Stringer has raised a controversy over the provenance of the famous ‘Napalm Girl’ image from 1972. Reading some of the reporting on this brought back memories when I also was a stringer or known by the more popular term a fixer.
It is 16 years since that call. Frantic, trembling and scared, the voice…
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Amantha Perera
Amantha Perera is a journalism academic, researcher and writer based in Australia.
Sri Lanka’s traditional media risks being jettisoned with its old political guard
Aragalaya protesters demanding the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president in April 2022. While the Aragalaya’s main target was Sri Lanka’s corrupt political elite, public disgust at partisan traditional media was also clear in the movement. “LISTEN TO THE SONG,” was my mother’s advice on how to figure out who had won an election in Sri Lanka. This was way before the internet, back when Sri Lanka only had state-controlled television, radio and print outlets as news sources.
#whatsapp #cyberhygiene
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Last week on behalf of the Dart Centre Asia Pacific I spoke to a group of…
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It is 15 years since the end of the war in Sri Lanka. For over a decade…
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In the early morning hours January 8, 2009, I was frantically working the…
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The Dart Centre Asia Pacific is positioned at a strategic location, right…
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Our exposure to graphic content is rising and we need to act on this now.…
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In South Korea, they call it ‘diving’, that is when someone goes off the…
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Sri Lanka disaster authorities failed to issue early warnings for storm that killed 202 people
UDUGAMA, SRI LANKA As floodwaters recede in Sri Lanka after monsoon rains killed at least 202 people and forced more than 80,000 from their homes, questions are being asked over the government’s failure to put in place preparedness measures that could have saved lives. The death toll could still rise after the storm lashed the country at the weekend, causing the worst flooding in 15 years.
How Sri Lanka’s mighty Rajapaksas are falling … again
By Amantha Perera D usk was falling, and Colombo’s streets were yet again filling with protesters. Among the crowd of demonstrators, some of whom were clutching the national flag, stood Minal Wickrematunge, a poster in her hands. Wickrematunge was there for hundreds of others and also for one man in particular: her uncle, editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, murdered in Colombo in January 2009. It was his birthday; he would have been 64 years old.
Digital dissent grows in Sri Lanka
By Amantha Perera W hen Sri Lanka’s controversial Rajapaksa brothers staged a political comeback in 2019, critical voices from both the media and civil society became muted partly because of the overwhelming popularity of the powerful siblings. Riding the crest of popular support, especially among the majority Sinhala community, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pledged to rid the country of inefficiency and fast-track it to prosperity and security.
Healing the messenger
By Amantha Perera A s an investigative editor at the Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka’s leading English daily, Piyumi Fonseka has seen it all. So when the COVID-19 pandemic began more than a year ago, Fonseka took the ensuing quarantines, curfews, and lockdowns imposed by the government all in stride. But as the health crisis wore on, she became increasingly uneasy.
Media’s problems multiply in Sri Lanka
Freelance journalist Rahul Samantha Hettiarachchi has gamed the science of unlocking information using Sri Lanka’s Right to Information (RTI) law. Since its inception in 2016, the law has helped Hettiarachchi access information that becomes material for his stories. And so after the country’s parliamentary elections were concluded in August last year, he went right to work and submitted several hundred RTI requests to various government agencies.
Misogyny in media: Women journalists in Asia face a growing wave of gendered threats
With the pandemic forcing everyone online, the cyberspace has become a much more dangerous place for women journalists. By Amantha Perera F or Himanshi Dahiya, just the mere fact of her being has proven to be an occupational hazard. Dahiya is a multimedia journalist with the Indian digital news platform, The Quint. She dives deep into the complex workings of the cyberspace, covering online hate and disinformation.
No end in sight to Asian media’s woes
Late last year, in November, Afghan journalist, Bismillah Adel Aimaq barely escaped with his life. In a Facebook post, he said that at around 11 in the evening, unidentified assailants sought to take his life, shooting at his car and throwing hand bombs into his house. His assassins were faceless and careless, and Aimaq survived, largely unscathed. He was even well enough to report the incident to security officials.
No end in sight to Asian media's woes
The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly empowered authoritarian leaders, endangering not only the health of journalists, but also of Asia’s free press. By Amantha Perera L ate last year, in November, Afghan journalist, Bismillah Adel Aimaq barely escaped with his life. In a Facebook post, he said that at around 11 in the evening, unidentified assailants sought to take his life, shooting at his car and throwing hand bombs into his house.
In tatters: Sri Lanka's excessive pandemic response
Government’s extreme measures to contain the garment factory outbreak put workers at a great disadvantage. By Amantha Perera A s dawn was breaking in the middle of October, groups of young people, mainly women, began to gather in a deserted school ground in Amandoluwa, a small village close to the Export Processing Zone (EPZ), next to Sri Lanka’s main international airport in the capital, Colombo. They had been asked to do so the night before by police.
Families of the missing in Sri Lanka refuse to disappear
Sri Lanka’s tragic history of involuntary disappearances can hardly be told using dry statistics. Amnesty International estimates 100,000 disappearances during armed internal conflicts. The International Committee of the Red Cross claims it maintains records of 16,000 missing persons, a few of them journalists and human rights activists, mostly young men and women who disappeared without a trace.
Families of the missing in Sri Lanka refuse to disappear
Though facing increased surveillance amid an authoritarian regime, these kin continue to demand answers — and justice. By Amantha Perera S ri Lanka’s tragic history of involuntary disappearances can hardly be told using dry statistics. Amnesty International estimates 100,000 disappearances during armed internal conflicts.
The Sunday Leader Online
The 'warm and cool' of straight politics By Amantha Perera Milinda Moragoda was once taken to task by two journalists. This was during a symposium at which he was a speaker. Moragoda was questioned on the biased reporting that was taking place on the peace process and one journalist charged that the government had its spies in news organisations. To the charges was included Moragoda being a US stooge. The sweat beads on Moragoda's forehead gave away the fact that he was not enjoying the encounter.
Big racial divide as Sri Lanka troops to polls
Despite subdued campaigns, Covid-19 has not curbed hate speech and authoritarian rhetoric By Amantha Perera S ri Lanka’s keenly contested general election was entering its last two weeks of campaign, and Manjula Gajanayake, one of the island’s foremost election monitors, was nervous. While driving to the remote south eastern Uva Province two weekends before the national vote on August 5, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) received a call.
The Sunday Leader Online
Eating wedding cake at the refugee camp Newly married Selvadurai Sornalingam travels from Jaffna to Colombo on the eve of the riots with his new bride and mother. They are caught in the middle of an ethic whirlpool. They escape through the sheer courage of a gusty Sinhala landlord who shields them from a mob. Five days after arriving in Colombo, they find themselves in a refugee camp, instead of at their newly rented home.
Sri Lankan rice farmers vow to fight Chinese investors
A rural Buddhist temple has become a command centre for Sri Lankans battling a 15,000-acre investment zone that threatens to swallow up their ancestral lands By Amantha Perera BERAGAMA, Sri Lanka, Feb 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - These days, Vimalabudhi Thero, head monk at the Beragama village Buddhist temple, is consumed more by worldly concerns than matters of the soul.
In reporting on COVID-19, the front line is the screen in front of you (Commentary)
Reporting the first universal, social media-dependent emergency of this generation, the COVID-19 pandemic, has compelled journalists to adapt to drastically altered working conditions. Dealing with mass anxiety and personal fears can leave a strong impact, especially for those on the front line of the story, including journalists.
In memoriam - My editor Lasantha Wickrematunge
Photo courtesy Amantha Perera A not-so-young man walked into the room of Lasantha Wickrematunge two decades ago. The man had nothing but a recommendation from his own father when he asked Lasantha for a writer’s post. Lasantha later told that man that he took a chance when he gave the man a low-paying job as a journalist. That is how my journey as a story-teller began.
Sri Lanka: a fractured nation
If anything, New Delhi has been quick off the blocks to woo the new Sri Lankan administration. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, was the first world leader to call President-elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa. A day into his five-year term, Rajapaksa held his first bilateral meeting with S. Jaishankar, the Indian external affairs minister. Less than a fortnight into his term, Rajapaksa will undertake his first overseas visit to New Delhi following an invitation from Modi that was delivered by Jaishankar.
Silence on China as Sri Lankans prepare to vote
China has been Sri Lanka’s largest lender for the past decade, playing a controversial role in the island nation’s headline development projects. Yet it is barely being mentioned on the rowdy campaign trail. Sri Lanka will go to the polls on 18 November, with Sajith Premadasa from the ruling United National Party competing against Gotabaya Rajapaksa to be the next president. The silence is a far cry from the elections of five years ago when China was front and centre.
Silence on China as Sri Lankans prepare to vote
Presidential hopefuls are cautious of criticising country that supplies half of Sri Lanka’s loans, ahead of 18 November elections Colombo Port City, the $US1 billion land reclamation project funded by Chinese loans, is still under construction (Image: Anonymous) China has been Sri Lanka’s largest lender for the past decade, playing a controversial role in the island nation’s headline development projects. Yet it is barely being mentioned on the rowdy campaign trail.
Sri Lanka struggles to adapt as disasters become a new "normal"
COLOMBO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - During Sri Lanka’s May floods, rescue crews in Kiriella, a small town in Rathnapura District, spotted a remarkable sight. A middle-aged woman, trudging through waist-deep floodwater, clutched a rooster carefully above the torrent, while a small girl struggled to hold onto the woman’s waist, at times barely able to keep her head above water.
Sri Lanka leader promises reorganization of security services in wake of Easter bombings
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA—Sri Lanka’s president said Friday that intelligence failings allowed the devastating Easter attacks to take place and that a major reorganization of the security services would occur in the coming days. Speaking at his residence to local media executives, President Maithripala Sirisena said the national police chief and defence secretary had both been warned about the attacks but did not inform him.
Sri Lanka leaders promises reorganization of security services in wake of Easter bombings
Security personnel stand guard outside a mosque during Friday noon prayer in Colombo on April 26, 2019, following a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images) April 26 at 4:11 AM COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday intelligence failings allowed the devastating Easter attacks to take place and there would be a major reorganization of security services in the coming days.
Sri Lankan spice tycoon's sons, daughter-in-law among Easter suicide bombers
JOANNA SLATER AND AMANTHA PERERA WASHINGTON POST April 25, 2019, 10:59AM Updated 8 minutes ago The "Follow This Story" feature will notify you when any articles related to this story are posted. When you follow a story, the next time a related article is published — it could be days, weeks or months — you'll receive an email informing you of the update. If you no longer want to follow a story, click the "Unfollow" link on that story.
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