Media groups take aim at top cop for veiled threats against journalist

Media rights groups have written to Inspector General of Police ( IGP) Chandana Wickramaratne raising concerns over “indirect threats” levelled by a Senior Deputy Inspector General ( SDIG) against a journalist on Facebook.

In a joint letter to the IGP, six media rights groups have drawn his attention towards a series of angry Facebook posts by the SDIG in response to an article published on the website run by Journalist Tharindu Jayawardena.

The SDIG had continually alleged that the journalist was publishing “fake news” and had claimed in his Facebook posts that “nature will win” some day. He had then allegedly asked the journalist and others who commented in suppor t o f Mr Jayawardena to “see (what happened to) Prabhakaran and other criminals.”

During their Facebook exchange, Mr Jayawardena had repeatedly challenged the SDIG to point out a single instance where he had published “fake news” as claimed by the senior officer, but he had not been forthcoming, beyond making a vague reference to an article on the Easter Sunday attacks, the letter notes.

The joint letter to the IGP was signed by the Free Media Movement, the Federation of Media Employees

Trade Unions, the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Forum, the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum and the Young Journalists’ Association.

The organisations note that there is a trend of people being arbitrarily arrested on allegations of spreading fake news. Many such persons continue to be detained without being subjected to proper judicial proceedings, they point out. In light of this situation, they have asked the IGP to direct attention towards the response made by the SDIG to the journalist and take steps to order a proper investigation into the incident and ensure the journalist’s safety.