''The Sunday Standard'' was an

English-language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

weekly newspaper in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

published by Standard Newspapers (Private) Limited, part of Communication and Business Equipment (Private) Limited (CBE). It was founded in 2006 and published from

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

. Its sister newspaper was ''

Mawbima ''Mawbima'' (lit. Motherland) is a weekly Sinhala language newspaper that publishes news, letters, articles, and features related to Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically a ...

''. ''The Sunday Standard'' and ''Mawbima'' were launched in August 2006.''The Sunday Standard'' was a successor to ''The Weekend Standard'' which had been launched by businessman

Tiran Alles Tiran Alles is a Sri Lankan businessman and politician. He is a former member of Parliament of Sri Lanka and former Minister of Public Security. Alles entered politics as an ally of former General Sarath Fonseka and a member of parliament for Fo ...

in August 2005 to help the presidential campaign 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 ...

. The newspaper was politically independent, and exposed corruption, mismanagement and human rights violations by the Rajapaksa government. This led to the newspaper being harassed by the government. On 18 January 2007, the Inland Revenue Department raided a number of companies associated with the Alles family, including Standard Newspapers. On the same day, the editorial director of Standard Newspapers was threatened with death if the newspapers continued to publish articles critical of President Rajapaksa's brothers

Basil Rajapaksa Basil Rajapaksa (born 27 April 1951) is a Sri Lankan-American politician. He is a former Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for the national list. He was also a member of the Sri Lankan Parliament from 2007 to 2015. During the peri ...

and

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, (; ; born 20 June 1949) was a Sri Lankan politician and military officer who served as the eighth President of Sri Lanka from 18 November 2019 until his Resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resignation on 14 July 202 ...

. Dushyantha Basnayake, finance director of CBE, was arrested by the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) on 26 February 2007, allegedly for giving money to the rebel

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eela ...

. The TID questioned numerous newspaper staff for many days and raided the offices of CBE on 5 March 2007, seizing financial documents and correspondence. On 6 March 2007, CBE's mobile phone services in the north and east of the country were suspended by the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on the orders of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. The bank accounts of Standard Newspapers and CBE were frozen on 7 March 2007 on the orders of President Rajapaksa. The last issues of ''The Sunday Standard'' and ''Mawbima'' were published on 24 March 2007.

References

2006 establishments in Sri Lanka 2007 disestablishments in Sri Lanka Defunct English-language newspapers published in Sri Lanka Defunct Sunday newspapers published in Sri Lanka Newspapers established in 2006 Newspapers disestablished in 2007 {{SriLanka-newspaper-stub