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Veteran journalist and jewel of a human being
Appreciation: For working in dangerous environment, Kanamaylnathan won many an award from leading internatinal organisations. He is seen here receiving an award from the Reporters Without Borders at a ceremony held in Strasbourg, France in November 2013.
M.V. Kanamaylnathan
Jaffna-based veteran journalist M. V. Kanamaylnathan, better known as Kanam, passed away on Monday, November 22, 2021.
I first came to know him when we were working together at the now defunct Independent Newspapers Limited during the second half of 1960s. It didn’t take long for us to understand each other.
In him I found an honest and sincere friend. He lived at Wellawatte and I lived at Kollupitiya and we often travelled together after work. There were rainy days when we shared lunch together.
This continued until I joined Ceylon Daily News in 1970. Though we worked in two different places, our friendship continued with the same warmth and we met often at my place at Kollupitiya.
In 1979 when I took a group of Sri Lankan journalists to relaunch the Dubai-based English language daily Gulf News, it was he who I first asked to join me. However he was reluctant.
Later he joined the Jaffna-based leading Tamil daily Uthayan and worked as its editor-in-chief for more than 35 years. During this period, he performed his journalistic duties under difficult circumstances due to the ethnic conflict while Jaffna was almost under the control of the LTTE.
He practised unbiased journalism despite threats to his life. Once he was almost killed when a vehicle knocked him when he was on his way home after work. He escaped but was badly injured.
He won many international awards for working in dangerous environment.
Uthayan office was attacked several times and once after seeing a report in the BBC, I tried to take him to Dubai, but failed. Almost 30 years later I got a call from him saying he was in Wellawatte for medical treatment for his heart ailment.
We met and spoke for long hours. Few years later, once the LTTE war ended and the road was safe to travel, I visited him at his Uthayan office in Jaffna. My last visit to his office was three years ago. It was sad to see he was ailing. While I was with him, his wife repeatedly called him to ensure he returned home safely.
I took him in a three wheeler to his house and something in my inner mind told me that this might be my last meeting with him. Last week, I was thinking about him several times and when I thought of calling him, came the sad news that he had passed away that morning. He remains a great source of inspiration to the new generation of journalists though journalism has fast become PR job in our country.
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