Eelam War and its Aftermath: Editorial Analysis of Dinamani

The last leg of the Eelam war that ended in May 2009 and its aftermath were widely covered by the mainstream media across the globe. As ‘Eelam’ is an issue close to the heart of the Tamils, especially those in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the researchers ventured to perform a content analysis of editorials and columns published in the Tamil daily ‘Dinamani’ from January 2009 to January 2011 to find out whether the newspaper reflected Tamil sentiments. While investigating how Dinamani handled the end of the LTTE regime, the study revealed that the editorials and columns exposed violations of human rights by the Sri Lankan government and its armed forces. This study also found that the paper was highly critical of the role played by the Indian and Tamil Nadu governments during and after the war. In its opinion, the two governments were inefficient and unsatisfactory, with regard to dealing with the Sri Lankan Tamil issue.