SLMM denies commenting on gazette

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 June 2002, 02:44 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Sunday denied a report by the Daily Mirror that Hagrup Haukland, Deputy head of the SLMM, had stated that the Sri Lankan government’s gazette notification of fishing restrictions issued last month conflicts with the provisions of the ceasefire agreement the government signed with the Liberation Tigers.

In a statement released from its Colombo headquarters, the SLMM said: “This is an incorrect quote, hereby officially denied by SLMM and is therefore entirely the Daily Mirror's responsibility.”

The statement quoted Mr. Haukland, as saying that: "I have never read the Sri Lankan government's Gazette notification on fishing restrictions, and therefore I have certainly not commented on it or it's relations to the Ceasefire Agreement to the media."

“The SLMM urges all media to exercise good journalistic practice, especially when reporting on sensitive issues regarding the Ceasefire Agreement,” the statement said, adding that the Daily Mirror report “was spread further” when Tamilnet quoted the newspaper.

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