[2] He then worked for the Daily Mirror (1961–69), J. Walter Thompsons (1970–71) and Ceylon Tourist Board.

[1][2][3][4] After the Black July riots of 1983 the Sri Lankan government banned the Saturday Review and Sivanayagam, fearing arrest, fled to Madras where he was in charge of the Tamil Information Centre and Tamil Information and Research Institute.

[1][2] After the assassination Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991 Sivanayagam was arrested under the National Security Act and imprisoned without charge.

[1][2][4] Whilst in France Sivanayagam founded and edited the Hot Spring journal.

[2][4] Two books written by him were published: The Pen and the Gun (2001) and Sri Lanka — Witness to History — A Journalist’s Memoirs (2005).