Stop, reflect and celebrate!

Seven years can pass in the blink of an eye. But today is a moment to stop, reflect and celebrate as Daily FT celebrates its seventh anniversary. 

Launched as Sri Lanka’s only dedicated business newspaper in 2009, Daily FT came alive at a historic juncture. With the war over the focus was shifting to fixing the economy, attracting investment and catching up on the development lost during the long war years. The thread of reconciliation, which has always been part of the country’s post-independence narrative, gained new importance and the world waited for Sri Lanka to finally takeoff.  

But a once rosy picture took on a distressing new hue. Corruption increased, unviable projects multiplied, exports and public revenue declined, debts rose and foreign investors decided to mostly stay away. New extremist religious groups began to multiply with frightening frequency and sectarian violence reared its ugly head. 

Towards the end of 2014 the winds of change began to stir again. Daily FT readers remember clearly the heady events that swept President Maithripala Sirisena and his coalition Government into power in January 2015. There was finally a chance to celebrate regained freedom. 

Nearly two years later the progress of the Government, founded on the principles of transparency, good governance and democracy, remains mixed. From an economic perspective, long-needed reforms are slowly being rolled out as the Government looks to attract foreign investment and boost exports. The recently presented Budget has been hailed by most private sector stakeholders as progressive despite several concerns over taxes. A budget deficit of 4.7% has been targeted and the commitment to fiscal consolidation remains solid despite creeping worries of accountability, policy inconsistency and corruption. 

During this time journalists, photographers, columnists, staff and various other contributors to Daily FT have spent each day documenting the good, bad and at times ugly developments of the economic and political dimensions of Sri Lanka’s society. The journalist’s or columnist’s job is often an unglamorous one with hours spent trying to scrounge out facts in a mire of information flowing in different directions, chained to deadlines and prey to opinions beyond their control. But as American abolitionist and liberal activist Wendell Phillips once observed, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” 

For journalists exercising eternal vigilance on behalf of their community and readers, the public’s interest is the final measure of their work. Evaluating a newspaper can be done in many ways but most of those paths should begin and end with public interest. Sri Lanka’s journalism industry, hollowed out by many years of suppression, needs the resources and freedom to collectively find its feet again. 

Daily FT, as it has done over the last seven years, will continue to inform, engage and entertain with the key issues and topics of the day. Its dedicated staff will strive to introduce new sections and sectors to the paper that will broaden the interests of the private sector and give greater information to policymakers. 

Daily FT will assist its readers in understanding changing world trends triggered by unexpected ‘Brexits’ and elections and reveal to them how these events affect domestic markets. In a world where all things are connected, Daily FT will continue to build on its relationships to forge value.