Lifetime Achievement Awards

Dudley Jansz

Dudley Jansz joined the Daily News as a young reporter in 1978. After a couple of years of reporting where he covered the Finance and Transport beats, he was handpicked by late veteran editor Clarence Fernando and groomed as a sub-editor. 

Dudley Jansz

T. K. Bandara

A. L. K. Perera

K. M. L. B. Senaratne

GopalapillaiThiruketharanathan

He received the best training in sub-editing under the maestros at the time, including the late K. Nadarajah, George Mason, and Christie Kuruppu.

Jansz was much sought after by many a reporter for his excellent editing skills and crisp headlines. 

His gamut covered sub-editing general news, parliamentary copy, and business news. He also conducted a four-month training program for sub-editors for Lake House in 2018. A product of St. Benedict’s College, Colombo 13, Jansz won the first prize in the school’s essay competition and was the Editorial Assistant of the ‘Ben’ magazine. 

He was also a popular part-time radio presenter at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation spanning almost 25 years. 

Jansz completed 40 years of dedicated service at the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. where he won approbation all-round. He served both the Daily News and the Sunday Observer where he reached the pinnacle of his career as the Senior Associate Editor.

Tilakaratne Kuruvita Bandara 

Tilakaratne Kuruvita Bandara entered the media world during the middle of the 1960s. He started his career as a sub-editor and a feature writer on the Janahitha, Udaya, Poda Udaya and Lassana published by the Jana Samagama Company Limited. After joining Lake House in 1970, he worked as a staff news writer on the Janatha newspaper. Thereafter serving as a sub-editor of the Dinamina newspaper for a long time, he was appointed as its Chief Sub-Editor.

In 1993, he was appointed as the Chief Editor of the Silumina newspaper and thereafter appointed as the Chief Editor of the Sarasaviya newspaper. In 2000, he was appointed as the Co-Editor of the Silumina newspaper and in 2002 he was re-appointed as the Chief Editor of the Silumina newspaper. Kuruvita Bandara retired from Lake House in 2004. He was also Editor of the ‘Vesak Supplement’ for nearly 14 years.

After retiring from Lake House, he accepted the post of Deputy Editor of the Irudina newspaper. Kuruvita Bandara was the founding Chief Editor of the first Mawbima newspaper in 2006. In 2008 he resigned from there and was appointed as the Chief Editor of Siyatha weekend newspaper.

In 2010, he was appointed as a Consultant of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and was the editor of the latest magazine Handa published by SLBC.

In 2015, he was appointed as the Consultant Editor of the Silumina newspaper of Lake House and after another year, was re-appointed to the post of Consultant of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.

Kuruvita Bandara, who is both a poet and a critic, has published seven poetry works including ‘Dewiyo Thathigena Maha Polowata Ethi’ and three prose writings. He was a member of the Sinhala drama subcommittee and the Sinhala literature subcommittee and at present, is a member of the State Literature Advisory Committee.

He has served at the judge boards of the State Literary Awards, Swarna Pusthaka Awards, the Journalism Awards for Excellence as well as the Presidential Media Awards in 2018 and a member of the jury panel of the Signis Cinema Awards and Sarasaviya Cinema Awards.

He has received a number of prestigious awards including the Sri Lanka Media Awards presented by M. Ram, Editor of The Hindu newspaper in 1995 for his contribution to the media field in Sri Lanka, the ‘Eminent Media’ Awards presented by the Arthasad Sanniwedana Lakshaya Society and the Suwanda Padma Golden Award in 2017 and the Kalabushana’ Award presented by the Cultural Ministry. 

Tilakaratne Kuruvita Bandara at present works as a Consultant of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and editor of the magazine Handa. 

A. L. K. Perera 

A. L. K. Perera set out in his journalistic career at the old Times of Ceylon Group. He joined the service in the 70s as a member of the Editorial Board of Lankadeepa that was published by them. In 1987-88, he then joined the Editorial Board of Wijeya Newspapers Limited and worked on the Lankadeepa newspaper, published by them. Perera worked as a News Editor and a feature writer for the Daily Lankadeepa and later became the sub-editor of Lankadeepa. 

At the time of retirement a few years ago, he was serving as the sub-editor of Irida Lankadeepa. Perera has a career spanning 40-years as a journalist. 

K. M. L. B. Senaratne

K. M. L. B. Senaratne was born in a traditional village in Kandy. He had his early education at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo and with the Japanese bombing of Colombo, he returned to Kandy and entered Kingswood College. At Kingswood, perhaps following in the footsteps of its founder L. E. Blaze who was a journalist and Editor, Senaratne edited a ‘student’ journal for the school and other students.

Senaratne, who counts 63 years in journalism, known to senior journalists as ‘LB,’ started his career on the Times of Ceylon under Tori de Souza, Editor-in-Chief. After some years, he joined the Ceylon Daily Mirror and was fortunate to click a photograph of the present King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf riding an elephant when he was in Sri Lanka as the Crown Prince of Sweden. While in the Ceylon Daily Mirror, he went overseas and was trained as a sub-editor in two British newspapers. Upon his return, he joined the Sun newspaper as a sub-editor. He later joined the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and became its first correspondent and later the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation.

He later joined Lake House and became its District Correspondent working in Matale and later in Kandy.

He also had a short stint with the Swedish consumer project funded by SIDA as its Information and Publicity Officer. 

Senaratne received the Kalabushana Award and the Rotary Award Excellence in Journalism. He is also the recipient of the ‘Star Award’ from the Central Provincial Council for Journalism. He holds a Diploma in Journalism from the University of Colombo.

He has authored five books for children and a book ‘Elephant Tales’ and a Tamil book on the Sacred Tooth Relic.

Gopalapillai Thiruketharanathan

A native of Chavakacheri, Jaffna, Gopalapillai Thiruketharanathan, known to most as ‘Ketharanathan,’ after completing his education at Vaithiswara Vidyalayam, Jaffna started his career in journalism at Virakesari newspaper during the early 1980s.

In Virakesari, at the inception, Ketharanathan worked as a clerk/translator for a short period, and then joined the editorial department as a sub-editor at the foreign news desk. In addition he was entrusted to handle local news as well. Since Ketharanathan was deeply interested in the fields of literature and arts, at the insistence of his superiors he was absorbed into the Sunday Virakesari section under the veteran editor late Pon. Rajagopal. There he made a contribution in writing and selecting inspiring articles in the spheres of politics, literature and arts and criticism. Ketharanathan’s keen interest and commitment in selecting and translating the insightful writings of eminent local and foreign thinkers, observers and analysts for Sunday Virakesari, at that time, was very much appreciated by the Tamil readers. He had a specific place among the Tamil writers and journalists who contributed immensely in making the Tamil newspaper readers familiar with the local and foreign alternative cinema.

Even after retirement in 2006, following a tenure of more than a quarter century, Ketharanathan has been continuously writing to newspapers and magazines on various subjects.