Bandula Jayasekara also known as Bandula Jayasekera (; 1960/1 – 5 March 2021) was a Sri Lankan journalist, broadcaster, newspaper editor and diplomat.

Career

Bandula initially pursued his career in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

and served as chief editor (former editor-in-chief) of the '' Daily News'' from 2006 to 2007. He also served as a columnist for ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

'' for a brief time period. He had worked in both electronic and print media networks during his career as a journalist before switching to his career as a diplomat. He also became a strong admirer of the Presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his administration especially during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. He served as director general, President's Office Media Unit, director general and spokesperson for Ministry of External Affairs during the presidency of

Mahinda Rajapaksa Mahinda Rajapaksa (; ; born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa; 18 November 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the sixth President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022; the ...

. Bandula Jayasekara also served as a diplomat in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

especially as Consul General in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

respectively. In addition, he also served as Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

in New York, where he was accused of sexual harassment of a fellow diplomat in the Sri Lankan mission. He then also worked as a host of ''Pathikada'' programme which was aired on

Sirasa TV Sirasa TV is a digital, terrestrial television network in Sri Lanka. It is the sister channel of ' TV 1' (Previously MTV Channel and MTV Sports) which was established in 1992. Sirasa TV was started in 1998 as a sister to its radio network Sir ...

News First NewsFirst or News 1st is a Sri Lankan news organization owned by thCapital Maharaja Organization Ltd News 1st primarily broadcasts news, live on three TV channels ( Sirasa TV, Shakthi TV, TV 1, five radio channels (Sirasa FM, Yes FM, Shakthi FM, ...

Death

In July 2019, he was diagnosed with myelodyplastic syndrome blood cancer. In October 2019, he had issued a public appeal for financial assistance in order to undergo a bone marrow transplant surgery in Singapore. However, the transplant surgery was delayed for months due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and he had to undergo treatment in Sri Lanka due to travelling issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. He died on 5 March 2021 at the age of 60 at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital in

Galle Galle (, ; , ) (formerly ) is a major city on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, south of Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Southern Province, Sri Lanka and is the capital of Galle District. Galle was known as ''Gi ...

. Prior to his death, he underwent treatment in palliative care at the hospital.

References

External links

Bandula Jayasekara
at '' Frontline''
Bandula Jayasekara
at ''

Outlook India ''Outlook'' is a weekly general interest English and Hindi news magazine published in India. History and profile ''Outlook'' was first issued in October 1995 with Vinod Mehta as the editor in chief. It is owned by the Rajan Raheja Group. Th ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Jayasekara, Bandula 1960s births Year of birth uncertain 2021 deaths Deaths from blood cancer Deaths from cancer in Sri Lanka Sri Lankan academics Sinhalese people Sri Lankan journalists Sri Lankan diplomats Sri Lankan broadcasters Alumni of Trinity College, Kandy