Sri Lanka It's Happening

April 26, 2007

In Sri Lanka not many people read the newspapers, they are hardly worth reading anyway. Most of those who do start off with the sports section or the business pages. Now with everyone being so taken up by the cricket world cup hardly anyone is getting to the front page. Even the business section is full of cricket. Mostly with press releases sent by companies claiming to have contributed to cricket in so many ways. If you buy a journalist a bottle he will publish anything.

Petrol and Diesel price hikes are usually front page news here, but most people didn't know about the last hike until they pulled over to the filing station. There is speculation that electricity fares will be hiked. It will be no surprise if the actual hike is announced on the day of the world cup final.

Front page news about the fighting in the north and east is not been noticed. But the reports are hardly worth reading anyway because they are heavily sanitized. There are no Sri Lankan journalists at the battle front. That might sound shocking to anyone outside sri lanka but that's the way they have always been. So even the front page news is usually nothing more than press releases.