Five senior journalists will get Lifetime Achievement Awards at the Journalism Excellence Awards ceremony to be held on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Empire Ballroom of Mount Lavinia Hotel.
The awards for 2009 are being given by the Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Press Institute.
The five receiving Lifetime
Achievement Awards are:
Arthur U. Amarasena
Mr. Amarasena is a senior journalist, film producer, teledrama director and script writer. While attending Rahula College (Rahula Maha Vidyalaya) Katugastota, he started writing to Sinhala newspapers and magazines.
He joined the Dawasa Group of newspapers in 1961 as a free lance reporter and covered Parliament, courts and various government departments. His media guru was D. B. Dhanapala, the editor in charge of the Dawasa newspaper Group and the doyen of journalists in Sri Lanka. He was appointed Editor of the Visithura, the then most popular film and arts weekly newspaper and later became the Senor Deputy Editor of Riviresa, the then most popular Sunday National newspaper.
In 1974, he joined the Times of Ceylon Group and became the Editor of Suratura, a weekly cultural newspaper.
He has also contributed to the following magazines: Sathdina, Sithsara, Kalpana, Suraliya, Mada Peradiga, Nidahasa, Visva Tharanga and Liyathambara.
He has also authored several books such as Sinhala Cinema Wansaya, Ethera Visituru, Sinhala Maha Cinema Wansaya I and II, Hetawasaraka Sinhala Cinema Prakashana, the Birth of the Sri Lankan Cinema, the History of Tamil Cinema and an artiste’s directory.
Maruthappu Vallipuram
Kaanamylnathan
Mr. Kaanamylnathan has 48-years in journalism to his credit. During this period, he has served as Sub Editor of Eelanadu – a Jaffna Tamil daily newspaper and then became the chief sub editor of Dinapathi, the Tamil language daily newspaper of the Independent Newspaper Ltd. He later joined the Virakesari Group and was in charge of the Jaffna News Service.
In April 1985, he joined the Saturday Review, a Jaffna-based English weekly newspaper and moved over to the Jaffna-based Uthayan (Daily) and Sanjeavy (weekly) as Chief Editor in November 1985.
Anandi Balasingham
Mrs. Balasingham is a B.A. Graduate of the University of Colombo. She retired in 2008 after serving as the Deputy Editor and Business Editor of Thinakaran Daily and Thinakaran Varamanjari, published by the Lake House Group.
She had served in Thinakaran since 1968 as a freelance journalist while an undergraduate at the Colombo University. In 1972 she joined the permanent staff after graduation. She served as a journalist, features editor, children's page editor and women's page editor.
She is a visiting lecturer in Mass Communication at the Open University of Sri Lanka, the Colombo University for Diploma in Journalism course and at the Sri Lanka College of Journalism.
She has attended workshops and seminars on several occasions and visited Australia, France and Nepal during her journalistic career. She is a past student of Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya and St. Clare's College, Colombo.
Sirilal Kodikara
Mr. Kodikara started his journalistic career in 1948 writing for a weekly Sinhala newspaper, Sinhala Jathiya.
He has worked as a journalist on the following newspapers: Davasa, Aththa, Heta and Ravaya. He also wrote a popular column on politics for the Aththa Newspaper in the 1970s and 80s. He has also authored many books on various subjects.
M. S. M. Munsoor
Mr. Munsoor is a senior Sub Editor attached to the Island Newspaper published by Upali Newspapers Limited.
He has been working as a journalist since 1970.
He received his early education at St. John's College, Colombo. |
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