‘Mawbima’ editor Thushara publicly admits he ‘goes to market’ for govt.

 Wednesday, 30 April 2014 

When the Action Committee for Media Freedom, a collective of media organizations in Sri Lanka, has visited the ‘Mawbima’ office to extend an invitation to its May 05 occasion, to coincide with the World Media Day, of collecting signatures for a public petition to demand the right to information, editor of the newspaper Thushara Gunaratne has said, “We will have nothing to do with such nonsense. Do not invite us for anti-government work. We will not send anyone. If anyone is found to have attended, we will punish them.”

Action Committee for Media Freedom members who had gone there to handover the invitation were Mandana Ismail Samarawickrema, who has lost her job as associate editor of ‘The Sunday Leader’, and ‘Lakbima’ photographer Nimalsiri Edirisinghe.

Taken aback by the unexpected reaction by the editor, the duo had left the newspaper office.

Thereafter, Gunaratne has telephoned the newspaper’s owner Tiran Alles, and asked him to inform the defence secretary about the incident immediately. Gunaratne has especially requested that his name be mentioned to the defence secretary. For reasons unknown, defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa cannot tolerate the ‘Mawbima’ editor, and the latter has fallen to a depth even below that of the ‘Dinamina’ editor to be in the good books of the former. Gunaratne has told several of his cronies that Tiran Alles was responsible for that.

Without stopping there, Gunaratne has telephoned Sumathi Publishers owner Thilanga Sumathipala and complained to him about photographer Edirisinghe, and asked, “Do you pay a salary to him for working for the newspaper, or for doing union work? I gave him a piece of my mind and showed him the door.” Sumathipala has told his management to inquire whether such an incident had actually taken place. He has told a friend, “I am a ruling party MP. But, this fellow is more worried than I about the government. Sajith comes in the morning saying one thing. His media spokesman comes in the afternoon saying another thing.”