BBC Sinhala Head Suspended: Non Sinhala Bosses Appointed, Liyanage’s Reports On Frances Harison’s Documentary Removed From BBC Web
November 17, 2013
Head of the BBC Sinhala Service, Priyath Liyanage, has been suspended, the Colombo Telegraph can exclusively reveal today.
A non-Sinhala outsider has been specially appointed to look after all BBC Sinhala Service activities for the first time of its history and the Sinhala Service staff has been informed about Priyath Liyanage’s suspension in writing, the Colombo Telegraph learns.
Priyath Liyanage
Unprecedentedly, the BBC Sinhala Service reporters have been asked to translate all their reports into English to be checked by higher authorities.
The Colombo Telegraph sent an email to the BBC Press office [worldservice.press@bbc.co.uk] asking several questions related to the suspension of its head of Sinhala Service. Strangely, the message we received said: “Delivery has failed”.
Early this year the BBC Sinhala head was sent to follow a BBC course on Journalistic ethics after he was caught giving letters of recommendation to Sri Lanka government to approve interest free loans to his deputy Chandana Keerthi Bandara and to the Colombo reporter Elmo Fernando.
Colombo Telegraph reliably learns that the Sandesya programs related to Frances Harrison‘s recent BBC documentary on Sri Lanka have been removed from the BBC website after investigations.
