COLOMBO: Armed males stormed the house of a high-profile Sri Lankan tv journalist vital of the federal government the day past, police stated, sparking condemnation via native media rights teams. Chamuditha Samarawickrama, who had criticised the tough ruling Rajapaksa circle of relatives and their allies in contemporary declares, together with on YouTube, used to be shaken however unharmed after the pre-dawn raid, police stated.
“They carried guns to intimidate the guard and won get admission to to the housing compound,” a police professional stated including that forensic professionals have been known as in to release an investigation. “There have been no less than 3 armed males and so they travelled in a white van,” Samarawickrama instructed AFP. “I heard pictures fired. They smashed my home windows and threw faeces on the area. It used to be captured on CCTV.”
“I don’t know who’s in the back of this assault, however I wish to inform them that they are able to’t silence me.” Native media rights organisations denounced the assault on Samarawickrama who’s each appreciated and loathed for his confrontationist interviews with public and trade figures on his programme “Fact With Chamuditha.”
“This assault underscores the damaging surroundings during which reporters had been operating in Sri Lanka in contemporary many years,” stated native media rights team the Unfastened Media Motion. “It’s ironic that this (incident) comes lower than per week once we venerated reporters who have been killed or in a different way victimised.”
In step with Journalists With out Borders (RSF), no less than 14 reporters have been murdered all the way through the 2005-15 presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the present top minister and elder brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Two weeks in the past, police started investigating Samarawickrama and his Hiru TV community for polemic in opposition to regulation enforcement and allegedly creating a false criticism of a danger to his existence. He had broadcast closing week an interview with a former police officer who had secured political asylum in Britain after claiming that he used to be being persecuted all the way through a prior Rajapaksa management.
The most recent attack comes weeks sooner than the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is because of take in Sri Lanka’s rights document over long-standing allegations of abuses. UN rights leader Michelle Bachelet had known as for “renewed consideration” to the intimidation of reporters, attorneys and activists in Sri Lanka after the Rajapaksa circle of relatives returned to energy in 2019. – AFP