Nearly three months since she was murdered, friends of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh will register a trust – Gauri Lankesh Memorial Trust – to memorialise her.
The Trust, to be registered on Monday, will be led by freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy and will have linguist G.N. Devy, activist Teesta Setalvad, among others.
V.S. Sreedhara, who is part of the Trust, said that it will have 15 members. Senior journalists, including Rajdeep Sardesai, have agreed to join. It will also have an advisory board.
The Trust will have four objectives: to support a paper that reflects the values upheld by Gauri Lankesh; award an annual national Gauri Lankesh Award to journalists or activists who are working to uphold Gauri’s values, organise a State and National level annual Gauri Lankesh lecture; and award fellowships for journalists from disadvantaged communities to study on particular topics.
However, Gauri’s mother, Indira Lankesh had recently procured an interim injunction order restraining anybody from using her name for a paper. When asked about this, Dr. Sreedhara said that the Trust will deliberate and decide on the modalities of the paper and that it was too early to comment.
A public announcement with regard to the Trust will be made at a public function on Monday evening, where a website will be launched along with a collection of poems written in memory of Gauri Lankesh.
