Tailed By Intelligence In Colombo, Says Channel 4 CHOGM Team
November 11, 2013
Britain’s Channel 4 team that arrived in Sri Lanka today to cover the Commonwealth summit to be greeted with “public” demonstrations at the airport and at their hotel now claim they are being followed in and out of their hotel in Colombo.
The Channel 4 team includes No Fire Zone Director Callum Macrae.
Photo credit Duncan Stone, Twitpics
Channel 4 News Editor Ben De Pear tweeted a short while ago that a car with plates ending 4612 were following the media team from their airport to their hotel and now from the hotel out.
Channel 4 Journalist Jonathan Miller also tweeted that they were being followed by a motorbike, a car and three men.
“Tailed by lka intel (intelligence) from airport to hotel & now to dinner. 1 motorbike, 1 silver Kia Sedan reg 4612, 3 men with taches,” Miller tweeted.
Even as the capital is mostly shut down for the summit and VIP arrivals demonstrators managed to get very close to the airport’s main exit door at the arrivals terminal. The Government has however prevented accredited media covering the summit from going to the airport to photograph and report on arrivals.
It is also curious that the demonstrators happened to know exactly what time the Channel 4 team was landing at the BIA, said one reporter based in Colombo.
With the degree of surveillance on the Channel 4 team so high, local journalists are unlikely to engage with the broadcasting team and they are unlikely to be able to travel freely to other areas of the country without endangering the people they speak to on their travels, the journalist explained.
Yesterday the crew from Britain’s ITV had their flight to Jaffna cancelled and were forced to take the road to the North, with the authorities now fully aware of their movements.
November 11, 2013
Britain’s Channel 4 team that arrived in Sri Lanka today to cover the Commonwealth summit to be greeted with “public” demonstrations at the airport and at their hotel now claim they are being followed in and out of their hotel in Colombo.
The Channel 4 team includes No Fire Zone Director Callum Macrae.
Photo credit Duncan Stone, Twitpics
Channel 4 News Editor Ben De Pear tweeted a short while ago that a car with plates ending 4612 were following the media team from their airport to their hotel and now from the hotel out.
Channel 4 Journalist Jonathan Miller also tweeted that they were being followed by a motorbike, a car and three men.
“Tailed by lka intel (intelligence) from airport to hotel & now to dinner. 1 motorbike, 1 silver Kia Sedan reg 4612, 3 men with taches,” Miller tweeted.
Even as the capital is mostly shut down for the summit and VIP arrivals demonstrators managed to get very close to the airport’s main exit door at the arrivals terminal. The Government has however prevented accredited media covering the summit from going to the airport to photograph and report on arrivals.
It is also curious that the demonstrators happened to know exactly what time the Channel 4 team was landing at the BIA, said one reporter based in Colombo.
With the degree of surveillance on the Channel 4 team so high, local journalists are unlikely to engage with the broadcasting team and they are unlikely to be able to travel freely to other areas of the country without endangering the people they speak to on their travels, the journalist explained.
Yesterday the crew from Britain’s ITV had their flight to Jaffna cancelled and were forced to take the road to the North, with the authorities now fully aware of their movements.
Channel 4 Team Arrives In SL; Greeted By Protests At BIA
November 11, 2013
Days after the Government announced again that demonstrations and protests would not be permitted during CHOGM 2013 the Channel 4 team and No Fire Zone director Callum Macrae exited the Bandaranaike International Airport to face a media mob and a demonstration against the broadcaster a short while ago.
Photo credit Duncan Stone, Twitpics
The Government has accredited Channel 4 to cover the CHOGM summit in Colombo.
The airport is under tight security with expected road closures throughout the day to facilitate VIP travel from the airport to the capital.
However the demonstrators protesting Channel 4′s documentaries accusing the Sri Lankan Government forces of war crimes was permitted at main exit doors of the BIA.
“We have walked out of Colombo airport straight into noisy anti channel 4 demo,” Channel 4′s Jonathan Miller tweeted on arrival.
On the weekend, several foreign journalists reported finding a special booklet inserted into their CHOGM media packs discrediting Channel 4′s claims, entitled ‘Corrupted Journalism.’ Commonwealth Spokesman Richard Uku is reportedly investigating how the booklets got into the CHOGM media packs.
