Iqbal Athas

Iqbal Athas, "Sri Lanka, a journalist for more than 30 years, is a consultant editor and defense correspondent for The Sunday Times in Colombo, where he writes about the ongoing separatist war between government troops and Tamil Tiger guerrillas. Athas is also the Sri Lankan correspondent for CNN and the Colombo correspondent for several international newspapers and magazines, including Jane's Defence Weekly. In 1994, Athas received the Committee to Protect Journalists' International Press Freedom Award for his in-depth and independent coverage of the Sri Lankan military, despite great risk to himself and his family. In February 1998, after Athas' column exposed large-scale military corruption, five armed military men forced their way into his home, assaulting a guard and a member of the household staff. Citing his "consistently good coverage of one of the most important aspects of Sri Lankan society," the Editor's Guild of Sri Lanka named Athas Journalist of the Year 1998."


 * Member, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists