The Island

Crosswire lists The Island as Center within Sri Lanka's media spectrum — the grouping it uses both for genuinely centrist titles and for outlets the major media-bias assessments do not place consistently on one side.

Read The Island beside another title from Sri Lanka and the differences show up fastest in what leads the page. Two dailies from Sri Lanka covering the same day will usually agree on the facts and differ on the ordering: which story is worth the top of the page, how the headline characterises it, and which follow-ups get space. Those are The Island's editorial choices, and they are easiest to see side by side. Because The Island is listed near the centre, it works best as the fixed point in a comparison — put a left- and a right-leaning title from Sri Lanka either side of it and the direction each one pulls becomes measurable rather than impressionistic.

This is an approximate orientation, not a definitive judgement — and not a rating of quality or accuracy. Read how Crosswire classifies editorial leanings, including the sources behind each label. Directory last reviewed 2026-08-31. Think this label is wrong? Suggest a correction.

The Island is one of 6 outlets tracked in Sri Lanka, and one of 3 daily newspapers among them — the others being Daily Mirror and The Morning. By outlets tracked, Sri Lanka ranks seventh of the 33 countries on Crosswire's Asia hub, which lists 169 outlets in all.

Across Asia, Crosswire tracks 67 of the 396 daily newspapers in the directory. The nearest counterparts to The Island outside Sri Lanka, starting with South Asia, are The Kathmandu Post (Nepal), Kuensel (Bhutan), Mihaaru (Maldives) and South China Morning Post (China). Opening one of them beside The Island is the quickest way to see what is a house style and what is a national one.