Veteran Journalist Priyath Liyanage Passes Away

Priyath Liyanage, Senior Journalist and former editor at the BBC Sinhala service has passed away on 16th November at the age of 61 in the United Kingdom. He had been hospitalised after being unwell for some time.

Mr. Liyanage was an old boy of Royal College and he began his career as a photographer for the Wijeya Newspapers. He is also the screenwriter of several films like 'Ira Madiyama' directed by Prasanna Vitanage. He was also the Unit Still Photographer of the iconic film Wasantha Obeysekera's 'Dadayama'.

He joined the BBC World Service in London as a freelancer in the late 1980s. In subsequent years, Mr. Liyanage became a senior producer at the BBC. Then he was appointed the Editor of BBC Sinhala in 1997 and served in his title for more than 17 years, later marking retirement in 2014.

The feature 'Ghostly Voices of the World War One' created by Priyath Liyanage for the BBC World Service, won an international award for Best Radio Feature.

Mr. Liyanage was known to be one of the most beloved journalists of all time and he was also a political analyst who was constantly on the lookout for Sri Lankan politics.