Protests outside TV stations
Posted on January 10th, 2019
Courtesy The Island
January 10, 2019, 10:54 pm
Representatives of political parties yesterday condemned a protest campaign by a group of persons clad in black and calling themselves civil activists outside the Capital Maharaja Organization, Hiru and Derana to intimidate those organisations.
A senior spokesman for the Maharaja Organization told The Island that they couldn’t be intimidated by such protests.
A spokesperson for another station alleged that a section of the government had launched the protest campaign, claiming that the media had backed the Oct. 26 government change.
Opposition Leader and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa told the media outside Parliament that it was clear who was behind the campaign to intimidate the media.
Rajapaksa pointed out that the term “Kalu Maadya” (Black Media) had been first used by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament.
Housing, Construction and Cultural Affairs and the Deputy leader of the UNP Sajith Premadasa underscored the importance of media freedom and how such freedoms upheld the democracy and sovereignty of the country. Premadasa strongly criticised the protest that was staged outside the MTV MBC head office.
Addressing Parliament, yesterday, UPFA MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage said that strict action should be taken to prevent protesters from forcibly entering media institutions.
Non-Cabinet Minister of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology Ajith Perera said that any form of threats against the media weren’t acceptable.
Azath Salley, the Governor of the Western Province said that the current government was keen to safeguard the freedom of the press. Salley, who is also the Leader of the National Unity Alliance, said that the protest directed at the media organization was meant to obstruct free media.
JVP MP Vijitha Herath told News1st that his party was not involved in the protest.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:00 am
It is utterly unacceptable to protest like this against the media, like shooting the messenger.
January 11th, 2019 at 4:47 pm
This is similar to Hitler’s Stormtroopers – Sturmtruppen or Brown Shirts who helped Hitler’s rise to power by intimidation. They start small but later turn to violence with state backing. Sri Lankans beware, Sri Lanka’s Hitler also called Ranil Ponil is following a Western Christian agenda to keep Sri Lanka firmly within the grasp of former colonial powers and their backers.
Where are the Ranaviruwoes who saved Sri Lanka from a 30-year war now? Feeble Opposition is not taking proactive measures to stop this conflagration. What is happening now should not be taken lightly in the light of what happened to all those countries Tunisia, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and former Yugoslavia. Wolf is at the door.
The main issue that should be kept alive and now proven beyond any doubt to be the biggest damage to Sri Lanka even on a historical scale, with repercussion that will reverberate for over 30 years is the Central Bank Bond Scam. It is now proven that this scam has been planned well ahead of time before the change of Government that took place on 8 Jan 2015. If so the whole of Yahapalana – Good Governance and Saadharana Samajayak slogans are just a cover-up for a major political coup perpetrated on the citizens of Sri Lanka. The exercise was to self-finance the internal expenses of the UNP political machinery to keep the traitorous government in power hook or by crook. The Tamil Economic Migrant (- also called Diaspora) money and funds from the Western Christian countries mainly from the US will be spent liberally to keep the status quo unchanged and in the hands of Ranil W.
During the last 4 years, those who are not asleep and those not pretending to be asleep have seen how the so-called people’s representatives have been auctioned and bought and used to usurp peoples sovereignty. These people who are on a do or die stance to stay in power through extra-constitutional means should not be returned to power at any future election.
The Current and freshly minted Opposition and the Media now under severe pressure to ‘fall in line or else’ should keep this subject alive for the UNP government is busy trying to bury it with no chance of further unearthing.
My kudos to Faraz Shakualey and his team at Sirisa for not letting the subject of the Central Bank Bond Scam fade away from public memory.