The Examiner (Sri Lanka) Paywall: How to Read Examiner Articles for Free

The Examiner, at examiner.media, is a Sri Lankan digital newspaper that the International Journalists' Network (IJNet) describes as the country's first subscription-based news title. It publishes a weekly edition by email and a stream of members-only articles on Sri Lankan politics, government and business, with a particular interest in the conduct of ministers, the passage of legislation and large projects such as Colombo's Port City. It is not to be confused with The Examiner of Launceston in Tasmania, an ACM regional daily, or with Examiner Media, a group of local papers in New York state; this guide is only about the Sri Lankan title. It explains how the paywall works and how to read a full article.

How The Examiner paywall works

The Examiner runs a subscription paywall. Its stories are marked members-only, and a reader who is not logged in sees the opening lines and a prompt to join. The subscription is deliberately low-cost: the company has advertised a price of $1 a month for Sri Lankan readers, though you should check the site for the current figure, which may differ for readers abroad.

The gate is enforced in the browser. The article text is delivered in the page so that search engines can index it, and a script then checks whether you are a member and hides the body if you are not. A reader that fetches the page without running that script receives the complete article. Our explainer on metered versus hard paywalls sets out why the way a gate is built matters more than its label.

Our tests on 3 November 2026 through Skip the Paywall:

• A 638-word The Examiner report "Asset declarations out; minister's solo India House visit breaks protocol" loaded in full, all 16 paragraphs.
• A 749-word The Examiner report on government MPs being briefed by PowerPoint on the anti-terror law loaded in full, all 13 paragraphs.
• A 991-word The Examiner analysis "No foreign developers, few foreign buyers, is Port City a scam?" loaded in full, all 20 paragraphs.

Read an Examiner article in full

• Copy the article link. The Examiner links look like examiner.media/ followed by the headline slug and a closing slash.
• Paste it into the box on the home page and press Read Article.
• The story appears in a clean reader view with the headline, byline and full text.

The Examiner publishes in English, so no translation is needed.

Other approaches

• The weekly email edition. The Examiner's core product is a weekly edition sent by email. Sign-up details are on the site; the edition is how most members read the paper.
• Subscribe at the local price. At the price the company has advertised for Sri Lankan readers, a membership costs less than almost any other news subscription we have written about. If you read it regularly, that is the obvious route.
• Related free sources. Parliamentary proceedings, government gazette notices and ministry statements in Sri Lanka are published free, and much of The Examiner's reporting on legislation and ministerial conduct can be checked against them.

How it compares with other South Asian titles

The Examiner is the only Sri Lankan title on our list so far. Several Indian papers, including the Times of India, Mint and The Hindu, are also on the full list of sites that work, which is kept current. If you have arrived here looking for the Tasmanian Examiner, that paper belongs to ACM and behaves differently; it has its own entry on the full list. The companion list of sites that cannot be bypassed explains the publications that return previews or block the reader.

Subscribe if you read it regularly

The Examiner is a small, independent newsroom in a country where subscription journalism is new, and it depends on its members. The company has advertised a price of $1 a month for Sri Lankan readers; check the site for the current figure. If you follow its reporting on parliament, ministers and the economy every week, a membership is the right way to keep it going.