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• My battle with cancer
• Dharmapala - the Colossus
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• Policing the police in this blessed homeland
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• At least now take action
• Looking at nature not only to see but to learn
• Bring them back home
• Letters to the editor

They choose freedom

Two important world media and human rights organisations, the Commonwealth Press Union and Article XIX chose Colombo to hold an international colloquium on Freedom of Expression and Defamation, a burning issue in Sri Lanka and other countries.

The opening ceremony was held amidst the drama of a picketing campaign organised by the Free Media Movement against the Media Minister who pledged to bring media law reforms by the first month of the third millennium.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression and Opinion, Indian-born Abid Hussein made the keynote address to a gathering of invitees drawn from several countries, especially in the South Asian region and Sri Lankan publishers, editors, journalists, academics, lawyers and MPs from both the government and the opposition.

The colloquium concluded on Friday.

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