Journalists in Colombo demand legal action against Navy Chief – VIDEO

ournalists and media workers from various parts of Sri Lanka Thursday staged a demonstration in Colombo, demanding legal action against the Navy commander for assaulting a fellow journalist at the Hambantota Mahinda Rajapaksa Port last week.

The protest took place opposite Colombo Fort railway station.

December 15, 2016

The protestors holding banners and chanting slogans against the attack, demanded the government to take legal action against the Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne for brutally assaulting a provincial camera journalist while covering the workers’ strike at the Port.

A freelance provincial journalist, Roshan Dilip Kumara, was among nine people injured when the Navy team attacked the Port workers on strike while trying to get two foreign container vessels released on Saturday (Dec 10).

Vice Admiral Wijegunaratne in civvies was seen physically assaulting the journalist and verbally abusing the workers on the International Human Rights Day. The attack has been widely condemned by the media activists, despite the government’s effort to justify the assault on the journalist.

Taking part in the rally, Dilip Kumara said he has lodged a complaint with the Hambantota Assistant Superintendent of Police for his future protection and denied reports that he withdrew it.

“I do not have any personal problem with the Navy Commander, but there has to be an investigation because he has attacked a journalist. The journalist from across the country are protesting here demanding an investigation,” Dilip Kumara said.

“I haven’t received any threat from anybody,” he said.

Dharmasiri Lankapeli, the head of Federation of Media Employees Trade Union (FMETU) said that the attack on the journalist has taken place amid claims by the government that it has got the right to information bill passed in passed in parliament

“It is under these conditions that Roshan Dilip Kumara went to Hambantota Port to report the workers’ strike. Roshan was brutally assaulted when he doing his duties as a journalist,” he said.

Lankapeli slammed the government for not investigating the incident that was widely reported.

“The government has not launched an investigation into it, while some are blaming Roshan for not following ethics of journalism. Roshan has not violated any ethics. He was only covering the navy’s attempt to evict the workers on strike,” he said.

The journalist who filmed Roshan being assaulted by the Navy Chief vehemently condemned the attack and demanded the government to carry out an impartial investigation.

“I am the who filmed when the Navy Commander brutally assaulted our fellow journalist. There were few other journalist at the scene covering the incident and they were also threatened by the navy. This is not what we expect from this ‘Yaha Palanaya’ (good governance),” Rahul Samantha Hettiarachchi, the head of Southern Province Professional Journalists Association told reporters at the protest.

He recalled how the President referred to journalists as people of his clan.

“Is the President going sit and watch the Navy Commander assaulting one from his clan? We urge the President to take disciplinary and legal action against the Navy Commander,” he said.

Head of Government Information Department Dr. Ranga Kalansooriya in a statement said on Sunday that the journalist had come under attack because of the failure on his part to practice basic ethics of journalism when covering sensitive situations.