‘Yaha Paalanaya’ forgotten: ‘Sathhanda’ editor & deputy to 4th floor!
Dec 09, 2015
Just 11 months have gone by since the ‘Yaha Paalana’ government came to power by promising to safeguard media freedom, but it has already blatantly violated and ordered ‘Sathhanda’ editor, Vanguard Party leader Deepthi Kumara Gunaratne and deputy editor Subhash Jayawardena, who is also editor of ‘lankadaily’ website, to be present at the 4th floor of the CID at 10.00 am tomorrow (10) to obtain a statement with regard to an interview published in the newspaper.
They are to be questioned regarding the publication of an interview given by Avant Garde head, retired Maj. Nissanka Senadhipathi, in which he has offended the so-called good names of three ministers. Jayawardena has conducted the interview and wrote the article in question.
Recently, minister Rajitha Senaratne complained to the IGP that he and two other ministers have been insulted by that particular article. Based on that complaint, the CID summoned Senadhipathi and questioned him for nearly three hours and recorded a statement yesterday.
As he was being questioned, Senaratne gave seven to eight telephone calls and insisted that Senadhipathi should be arrested. The CID officers firmly told him, “Mr. minister, let us do our job. Senadhipathi is a cunning one. If we dance to the ministers’ tunes, we will end up at the Supreme Court. Not even the attorney general will represent us. In the end, we will have to pay the lawyers’ fees by our beggarly salary which we earn to feed our little ones. Then, you will look the other way.”
Senadhipathi has maintained that what ‘Sathhanda’ has published was “nothing but the absolute truth,” and added he has audio and documentary evidence to support the claims.
Commenting on this, editor Gunaratne said, “This government came to power with a promise that the wrongs done by the previous government would not be repeated. This government is 11 months old. It has very quickly forgotten the promises it had given around this time last year at platforms throughout the country. They forget the reasons that caused the previous government to go home. Very soon, they too, will have to go home like them.”
During the Rajapaksa regime, on 29 June 2012, together with the Sri Lanka Mirror editorial, Jayawardena, the then editor of UNP’s 'xnews' website, was arrested by the CID, and the case against them on the charge of defamating the Rajapaksas is presently pending indefinitely. None of the computers seized by the CID have been returned to Sri Lanka Mirror editorial. Lawyers say they are being kept to bring out at the appropriate time.
