JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The remains of Arumugam Sabeswaran, a Tamil journalist, editor and journalism lecturer who worked for years in northern Sri Lanka’s media, were brought to the Jaffna Press Club on Tuesday night, where journalists, academics and civil society representatives gathered to pay their final respects.
Mr. Sabeswaran, known widely among colleagues as Sabes, died in Canada on July 29 after a period of ill health. He was 47.
His death brought tributes from a journalistic community in which he had occupied several roles — as a newspaper editor, a teacher of aspiring journalists and a former leader of one of the North’s principal media organizations.
Mr. Sabeswaran was a former editor of the Jaffna edition of Thinakkural, a Tamil-language newspaper, and served as president of the Jaffna Press Club. He was also a former lecturer at the Media Resources and Training Centre at the University of Jaffna, where he was involved in the training of journalists and media students.
His career was closely tied to journalism in northern Sri Lanka, a region where reporters worked through years of civil war and the difficult period that followed it. In addition to reporting and editing, his work in journalism education placed him among those who helped train a younger generation entering the profession.
After his death in Canada, Mr. Sabeswaran’s remains were brought back to Sri Lanka. On Tuesday night, they were taken to the Jaffna Press Club, the institution he had once headed.
Journalists and other media workers gathered there alongside university lecturers and representatives of civil society to pay tribute to their former colleague and teacher.
His remains will lie at his family home in Kokuvil on Wednesday for relatives, friends and members of the public to pay their respects.
The final rites are scheduled for Thursday, after which the funeral procession will proceed to the Kombayan Manal Hindu Cemetery in Jaffna for cremation.
