Editors’ Guild mourns former Island editor’s death
The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka has expressed its profound sorrow at the passing away of one of its founding members, Mr. Gamini Weerakoon, whose funeral took place in Colombo yesterday.
Mr. Weerakoon was the former Editor of The Island and the Sunday Island.He joined Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd., as a parliamentary reporter in 1966 and rose to the position of News Editor of the Ceylon Observer and Ceylon Daily News and specialized in international affairs. He covered several Non-Aligned summits and interviewed a wide range of foreign presidents and prime ministers during his long and distinguished professional career.
He was invited as guest of the governments of the United States of America, Japan, South Korea, India, Pakistan and France.Mr. Weerakoon was a board member of the Regional Institute of Strategic Studies, headquartered in Colombo, funded by the Ford Foundation and Japan Foundation.
He later joined the Upali Group of Newspapers as a News Editor of the daily Island and Sunday Island and later became the Editor of both publications.Subsequently, he joined The Sunday Leader as Consultant Editor and thereafter wrote a weekly column for the Sunday Times.
The Guild mourns his passing away.
