Samantha Yahampath Appointed to State Cinema Advisory Board

Our sister paper, Lankadeepa’s Features Editor and also the Editor of the ‘Rasavindana’ - Cinema and Art Supplement, Samantha Yahampath was appointed as a member of the State Cinema Advisory Board (SCAB), recently.  SCAB is functioning under the Art Council of Sri Lanka which comes under the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs. 
Samantha’s 3-year appointment has been made upon the direction of Minister ViduraWickremanayake, and it has been endorsed by Chairman of Sri Lanka Art Council, Prof. Praneeth Abeysundara.

As a journalist for over 30 years, Samantha has been writing on topics relating to cinema and arts in Sri Lanka. He has also served as a jury member for the State Short Film Festival and has been a member of the Teledrama Survey Committee of the Independent Television Network (ITN).
He has obtained diplomas on Mass Media Communications from the Universities of Colombo and Sri Jayawardhenepura.

A student from Sri Subodhi National School in Battaramulla, Samantha joined ‘Yowun Janatha’ of Lake House as a young reporter in 1989. Later in September 1991, he joined the first staff of the daily Lankadeepa and worked as a feature writer under Mahinda Dalugodaarachchi.   While celebrating 30 years in journalism, Samantha has dedicated nearly 25 years to handling the arts pages of the newspaper. At present he is the longest serving editor of the arts pages amongst all national newspaper in Sri Lanka.