SL Court clamps down on media coverage of mass grave excavations in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 August 2018, 18:34 GMT]
The Police of the occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has managed to secure a motion at Mannaar Magistrates’ Court, which was prohibiting local as well as foreign television, print and social media personalities from entering, photographing or videotaping the mass graves. Mannaar Magistrate T.J. Pirapaharan has also restricted people from accessing the site without permission from the officer in charge of the excavation at the site. Sources close to the SL Police in Mannaar said they filed an application following the instructions coming from their headquarters in Colombo on Tuesday. In the meantime, informed sources in Colombo told TamilNet that the Buddhist Establishment was getting annoyed as Sinhala visitors touring Mannaar started to visit the excavation site and discuss it in the social media.

Following the attention of Sinhala visitors, sections of Sinhala media have also taken an interest in the matter, the sources further said.

Rights activists in Mannaar said they also witnessed a team of BBC reporters visiting the site earlier this week.

In the meantime, journalists in Mannaar criticised the move as infringing on their media freedom and said they were consulting with the lawyers in Mannaar about making a legal representation on the matter.

Photographs of the notices put up in Tamil at the excavation site follow:



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