Sri Lankan journalist and human rights defender Freddy Gamage is to be bestowed with the medal of honour of Timor-Leste by president Jose Ramos-Horta on 27 November.
That is in recognition of his contributions to the campaign for the freedom of that country.
Gamage became involved in Timor-Leste’s freedom campaign when he sought political asylum in the Philippines in 1988-89 due to threats to his life back home.
He continued with his contributions after returning to Sri Lanka and even got deported by Philippine authorities in 1994.
As a journalist, Gamage was instrumental in transforming ‘Meepura’ regional newspaper into national level and even today it makes a considerable impact in web format.
He is among those who founded the professional web journalists association and introduced a code of ethics for the web media.
