Sanath Balasooriya
Feuchtwanger Fellow
Sanath Balasooriya, born in Sri Lanka in 1970, is a veteran journalist and human rights advocate with a focus on press freedom and minority rights. He began his career in journalism in 1991 and, from 2005, served as associate editor of Dinamina, a leading Sinhala-language daily published by the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL).
In 2000, Balasooriya founded “Journalists for Peace,” an organization dedicated to defending the rights of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority and promoting peace negotiations during a period of intense ethnic conflict. From 2005 to 2009, he presided over the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), the country’s largest journalist union, and served on the board of the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) from 2007 to 2008.
Due to persistent death threats stemming from his reporting and advocacy for human rights and press freedom, Balasooriya was forced to flee Sri Lanka in January 2009. Since June of that year, he has lived in Hamburg, Germany, with the support of the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted People. In exile, he has continued his literary work, having published a collection of short stories in 2000 and ongoing creative prose.