{"id":67293,"date":"2020-01-24T02:22:52","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T07:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67293"},"modified":"2020-01-24T02:21:14","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T07:21:14","slug":"attempts-to-link-ex-lake-house-chairman-krishantha-cooray-and-former-sunday-observer-editor-dharisha-bastians-with-swiss-embassy-staffer-incident-is-part-of-govt-strategy-to-drive-fear-into-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67293","title":{"rendered":"Attempts to Link Ex- Lake House Chairman Krishantha Cooray and Former “Sunday Observer” Editor Dharisha Bastians with Swiss Embassy Staffer Incident is Part of Govt Strategy to Drive Fear Into Media Personnel Say UNP Parliamentarians Eran Wickramaratne and Ajith P Perera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Refuting allegations that former Lake House chief Krishantha Cooray is linked to the Swiss embassy saga, the main opposition United National Party (UNP) said there is a conspiracy afoot to discredit Cooray and other media personnel not toeing the government line.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters at the Opposition Leader\u2019s Office this morning, UNP MPs Ajith P Perera and Eran Wickramaratne accused the government of resorting to new tactics to intimidate the press.<\/p>\n

Cooray, who the UNP-led Yahapalana Government had appointed as Chairman of the state-run Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (Lake House), has been in the news this week over telephone calls he is said to have made to former Sunday Observer editor Dharisha Bastians.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Citing call records, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday (January 21) informed the Colombo Chief Magistrate\u2019s Court that the Swiss embassy staffer who was allegedly abducted on November 25 had been in contact with a SIM registered under AFP journalist Lanka Paranamanna, four days before the incident.<\/p>\n

According to media reports, Paranamanna in a statement given to the CID on January 17 said she had given her SIM to Bastians. Further analysis revealed, the CID has claimed, that Cooray had been on the phone with the Sunday Observer editor on 21 occasions.<\/p>\n

The UNP questioned the relevance of this claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were reports that Mr Cooray was engaged in conversations with the Sunday Observer editor, which would only be natural since he was chairman [of Lake House at the time]. He must\u2019ve had conversations with all his editors,\u201d said MP Wickramaratne.<\/p>\n

MP Perera said Cooray, who hails from a \u201crespected media family\u201d, has a clean record with no allegations of ever breaking the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should his speaking to one of his editors arouse suspicion? There is no evidence at all that he had talked to the Swiss embassy employee,\u201d he said, suggesting that the groundwork is possibly being laid for an illegal arrest.<\/p>\n

The MP further said the reports alleging Cooray\u2019s involvement in the incident serve as a warning to all journalists to exercise self-censorship in their reporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll media personnel should stand up for the rights of journalists and media managers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wickramaratne warned the allegations levelled against Cooray is part of a new strategy to intimidate journalists into silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo link him to this case is a strategy to drive fear into media personnel. The strategy is not to murder, but to use fear as a tool of management and to use fear to manage society. This will not work. Sri Lankans must stand up for media freedom,\u201d he said.
\n
\nCourtesy:Economy Next<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Refuting allegations that former Lake House chief Krishantha Cooray is linked to the Swiss embassy saga, the main opposition United National Party (UNP) said there is a conspiracy afoot to discredit Cooray and other media personnel not toeing the government line. Speaking to reporters at the Opposition Leader\u2019s Office this morning, UNP MPs Ajith P …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Attempts to Link Ex- Lake House Chairman Krishantha Cooray and Former “Sunday Observer” Editor Dharisha Bastians with Swiss Embassy Staffer Incident is Part of Govt Strategy to Drive Fear Into Media Personnel Say UNP Parliamentarians Eran Wickramaratne and Ajith P Perera’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67294,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67293\/revisions\/67294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}