By Tina Edward Gunawardhana

When Sri Lanka was facing an economic collapse in 2021–2022,  journalist Dimuthu Athanayake was staring at a bleak future. She'd lost everything—her job, her accommodation and the little stability she had left. However, even during such bleak times, Dimuthu refused to give up. Amidst everything that life threw at her, she kept reporting. She filed stories during political unrest and covered protests — sometimes risking arrest. Through sheer grit, she landed her first international commission and has since progressed steadfastly to success. Since then, she’s published nearly 100 in-depth pieces in top outlets like The Guardian and Foreign Policy. Now, she’s been accepted to Columbia University’s Master’s in Data Journalism—ready to take her impact even further. However, she needs help to bridge the financial gap. This is the story of a Sri Lankan journalist whose courage and compassion could change the future of media in our region.

Your journey as a journalist is extraordinary. Can you take us back to 2021–2022 when Sri Lanka was in economic collapse, and you lost your job and housing? What kept you going through those darkest hours?

I think it was sheer determination!

I applied for so many jobs during that period but I think you remember how difficult it was to get
a new job at that time because most places had hiring freezes because of COVID and then the
economic crisis.

Then, I challenged myself to look outside of Sri Lanka, at foreign media publications; for months
I kept sending emails until something came through.

There were lots of rejections; I think there was this one time where everything looked so bleak. I
just sat on my bed and told myself, “you are not going to let life defeat you, you need to make
this work.”

My first commission came through about three months later, and I am so very grateful that I was
able to build a career in journalism despite all the challenges!

You’ve worked through 13-hour power cuts, political unrest, and internet bans to report the
truth. What does it mean to be a journalist in a country ranked rather low on the Press Freedom Index?
To be honest, it was really scary sometimes. I am a journalist, and I am also a woman, so the
challenges are multidimensional. During the initial part of the protests, some of my industry
colleagues got arrested, so I was terrifying to cover protests. This was partly because I work
independently, so I don't have an organisational shield if anything happens. But, after a while
the crisis at the ground level becomes the everyday reality; you no longer question and go about
your everyday coverage.

I remember, in July 2022, right after the protestors stormed the Presidential Secretariat and the
President's House, there was also a severe fuel shortage. I was out for coverage but then I
could not find a way to get back home. I couldn't get a bus, and there were no trushaws or cabs.
Finally, I went near a hotel, got hold of a tourist operator and asked whether he could drop me
home. This particular operator was very kind and dropped me to the nearest junction without
even charging me, but it also could have been dangerous. It was basically hitchhiking at night in
Colombo, and we all know that that's not a good idea.

You’ve written nearly 100 in-depth stories just since 2022, contributing to outlets like The
Guardian, Foreign Policy, BBC, and Deutsche Welle. Why is it so important that the world hears stories from Sri Lanka and the Global South?
I think it's important in different ways. For one, it helps fight corruption and hold governments
accountable internationally, at a macro level, but my favourite stories are the ones from the ground. This is because profiling people and communities can help bring aid from around the
world to the people who truly need it.

I experienced this multiple times during the debilitating economic crisis of 2022, where people
and communities I reported on received different forms of assistance, sometimes monetary,
sometimes in the forms of essentials or job offers. There was another instance where a
researcher from the UK looking at creating machine learning techniques to overcome blast
fishing derived inspiration and insights from my story on blast fishing activities in Sri Lanka.
As a journalist, seeing the impact of my work is the most rewarding and motivating factor that
keeps me going despite the daily challenge of this job.

It's also important for the world to know about our own unique identity, and culture, history,
biodiversity and socioeconomics. I think it's also good when a local journalist reports these
stories, because it allows for better verification of the facts.

Your investigation on climate change and economic violence against women farmers helped
bring finance companies under regulatory scrutiny. How do you choose stories that can spark systemic change?
That's a tough one to explain! My editors helped, especially when I started out. But, then when
you have experience and when you have domains that you have been following for years, you
kind of develop this instinct that helps you nose out a good story.

You’ve reported on enforced disappearances, the Easter Sunday attacks, and the human cost
of environmental degradation. How do you navigate the emotional weight of these stories while continuing to tell them with compassion and clarity?
To be honest, I think I am still learning this one. My former editor used to call me an empathetic
writer, which means that in a way I tap into the emotions of the people I am profiling, which I
then project out with a more objective journalistic stance. This is what provides the stories the
compassion and clarity they need, but there were times when it was devastating to report these
stories. I especially remember being shattered for months after reporting on the Easter Sunday
attack survivors – it was difficult to see the raw pain in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy,
and then to see both the physical and emotional scars years later.

Why is pursuing a master’s in data journalism at Columbia University a critical next step for
you—and for the communities you represent in your reporting?
This program has modules on computation, algorithms, and data analytics – skills that are fast
becoming essentials in the industry. So I believe, to be able to stay a journalist in a fast moving
world, it's important to keep up with the technological advancement of the industry. From a
reporting perspective, these skills will help me create better value for society; in global south
nations such as Sri Lanka, data is scarce, censored, or exists in silos. But, the trained eye of a
data-journalist can uncover these trends by mapping seemingly unlinked data with ground insights, that could lead to better reporting, either by uncovering and reporting on areas that
were previously not visible, or by utilising data to add another layer of credibility to reporting.

You once thought data journalism was out of reach because you weren’t a traditional coder.
What changed that belief—and what kind of impact do you hope to make by mastering this new storytelling tool?
I spent a considerable amount of time researching for a program that could fit a student with my
profile; I have domain knowledge in economics, in environment and climate change, and in
social inclusion. My bachelor’s is in economics and finance, so I know how to work with
statistics. But, I still found coding challenging, and whenever I worked with codes, it drained me.

So, I spent time speaking to students who shifted to coding from some other domain, and I also
asked some of the leading data journalists in the industry, including Pulitzer Prize winning data
journalists, for their recommendations for this particular use case. I was told that I would need a
structured program, in contrast to learning online, or learning ad hoc from different sources. I
was particularly recommended this master's program by some of them.

You've already proven that your journalism influences policymakers, researchers, and
entrepreneurs. With Columbia's training, how will your ability to catalyze solutions grow?
I believe adding that extra layer of data provides so much clarity to a story and demonstrates
the links I try to prove with anecdotes. It contributes to more accurate, credible, and accountable
reporting.

Also, Columbia Journalism School is housed inside the Pulitzer Hall, one of the highest
accolades in the industry. The professors there are Pulitzer Prize winners, or from prominent
publications in New York. These are the global gold standards of the industry, and I believe it's
important to learn at this level. These are the standards that I would like my journalism to be at.

You've overcome enormous odds—poverty[ financial hardships], censorship, crisis—and
earned a place at one of the world’s top universities. What does this opportunity mean not just for you, but for other aspiring journalists from marginalized communities?
I think this shows why you have to believe in yourself when it comes to your goals, even if no
one has done it before, even if there are a million factors that make a task look impossible to
achieve.

I mean, it's perfectly normal to feel down at some points, but it's important to deal with those
emotions and to still chase your goals. I too was told that as a Sri Lankan it was impossible to
get into a top university, that my qualifications are not enough – I proved that this is not the case. I hope my colleagues will take my case as an example, and apply for all the opportunities
that are available. After all, as journalists, swimming against the tide is only second nature to us.