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UNP fears attempt to control media through false claims
23 Jan, 2020
The United National Party (UNP) today feared there could be attempts to control the media through false claims.
UNP Parliamentarian Ajith P. Perera said that the Police have made misleading statements on the former Chairman of Lake House Krishantha Cooray and journalist Dharisha Basitians.
He said that the Police had attempted to claim links between Cooray and the alleged Swiss Embassy employee abduction incident.
The Parliamentarian insisted that Cooray never spoke to the Swiss Embassy employee.
“If the journalist spoke there is nothing wrong. What the Government is trying to do here is to make sure journalists don’t speak to such people,” he said.
Perera warned that the false claims could be an attempt to instill fear in the media and control them indirectly.
UNP Parliamentarian Eran Wickremeratne said that the claims being made by the Police on Krishantha Cooray and the journalist is a threat to media freedom.
He said that the investigators are trying to twist the investigations by claiming that the media was involved in the alleged abduction incident.
The Parliamentarian said that there was nothing wrong if the journalist spoke to the Swiss Embassy employee as that is a right of any journalist.
Wickremeratne said that since the new Government took office a number of journalists have fled the country.
He said that the Government is using fear as a strategy and as a tool of management as opposed to murder.
Wickremeratne asserted that the Sri Lankan public must stand for media freedom. (Colombo Gazette)
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