Colombo Crime questions the Northern Province journalists for four hours

Wednesday, 29 April 2015

It is reported the reason to call the four Tamil journalists from Mannar and Vavuniya to the Colombo Crime Division on the 28th of Tuesday is to get a statement of a death threat imposed via a telephone conversation.

When we inquired about this incident from Rosarian Lambert an independent journalist from Mannar he told JDS the four journalists who were called is to Colombo to inquire about a death threat imposed by a mobile telephone call against the executive Director of PAFFREL Rohana Hettiarachchi.

Intimidating telephone calls 

An independent journalist said “I and other three journalists who were called today for the inquiry received calls from that same number. The Colombo crime division wanted to check was that a similar threaten imposed against us was imposed to the head of PAFFREL”.

As journalists we receive number of calls for a day and we don’t keep track of those calls said Rosarian. We never received such intimidating calls during that period.

These journalists who stay 200 km away were asked to come to Colombo to get a statement following a four hour inquiry in the Colombo Crime Division. 

Waste of time 

A journalist attached to the Tamil Journalist Organization told JDS that there is no necessity to call these journalist’s to Colombo to obtain a statement. 

“If they want know the nature of this threatening call imposed against another person they could have taken it from the relevant police station where those journalists live. Despite informing the reason for the inquiry and calling them to come to Colombo from a distance is a waste of time and money” he further stressed.