Amantha Perera

Dart Centre Asia Pacific
Project Lead
Amantha Perera is a Project Lead for the Dart Centre Asia Pacific and a foreign correspondent based in Melbourne, Australia. He covers the Asia Pacific region with special interest in conflict, post conflict situations, humanitarian disasters and climate change. He works as a contributor for TIME, Reuters/Alertnet, the Inter Press News Service – IPS and the Integrated Regional Information Network – IRIN. Perera is currently pursuing post-graduate research on online trauma threats faced by journalists at CQUniveristy in Melbourne. You can follow him on Twitter at @AmanthaP.

 

Recent Posts by Amantha Perera

  • A photograph of the sealed and locked Kashmir Press Club

    As Kashmir is silenced, press freedom levels fall below Afghanistan and Myanmar

    February 24, 2022 by Amantha Perera

    In September 2020, Amnesty International halted its operations in India, with the UK-based organisation publishing a report warning of a coordinated effort to silence journalists and activists in the region. 

    The Indian government “must immediately halt its intensifying suppression of dissent,” said Amnesty International, following a series of raids on journalists and human rights groups in Jammu and Kashmir.

    Since then, the situation has deteriorated from bad to worse, particularly for journalists in Kashmir, culminating with the recent arrest of Fahad Shah, a journalist and founding editor of The Kashmir Walla.

    Amantha Perera, Project Lead for Dart Centre Asia Pacific, reflects on how press freedom is being eroded, not only in Kashmir, but in other Asia Pacific regions. 

  • Dark Eyes and Bullet Holes: Reflections on Covering War

    November 16, 2016 by Amantha Perera

    Amantha Perera, a foreign correspondent and Dart Centre Asia Pacific’s Regional Facilitator, reflects on covering the Sri Lankan Civil War. “I did not see fear. I did not see sorrow, hate or revenge. I wish I had,” he writes. “I saw a deep, unfathomable darkness. An abyss. As if there was nothing left to feel, nothing to live for.”

  • Nepal Earthquake: One Year Later

    April 25, 2016 by Amantha Perera

    One year after a pair of powerful earthquakes shook Nepal, resulting in the deaths of more than 8,000 people, Ochberg Fellow and Dart Asia Pacific Regional Facilitator Amantha Perera writes about the challenges of covering this tragedy and its aftermath, featuring lessons learned from Nepali journalists Sudarshan Khatiwada, Makar Shrestha and Sangita Shrestha. With reporting by Deepak Adhikari in Kathmandu.

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