Government’s five year limit under fire

 Monday, 21 April 2014

The Foreign Correspondents Association (FCA) has said it is unaware of any time limits on visas issued to foreign journalists posted to Sri Lanka as stated by the government.

The FCA statement was made in response to a comment by Media Ministry Secretary Charitha Herath that a five year policy was in place for foreign journalists based in Colombo.

Herath had made the comment on twitter when questioned about the government decision not to grant a one year visa extension to the BBC correspondent in Colombo, Charles Haviland.

Haviland has been in Sri Lanka since April 2009 and his visa expired this month and he had sought a one year extension through the External Affairs Ministry.

However, the Ministry had refused to grant him the one year extension and had given him a few days to leave Sri Lanka.

Following pressure by senior foreign journalists based in Colombo the Ministry had granted a three month extension to him.

“The FCA is unaware of any time limits on visas issued to foreign journalists posted to Sri Lanka. However, we have noted remarks by the authorities that the Media Ministry will articulate in the coming week their policy on visas for foreign correspondents, and we look forward to seeing it,” FCA has said in a statement.

FCA has also noted that the existing policy adopted by Sri Lankan authorities on foreign journalists is available on the External Affairs Ministry website, but it does not makes reference to how long a foreign journalist can work in Sri Lanka.