MTV journalist threatened

JOURNALIST Jeyaratnam Sri Ranga of the MTV/MBC Channel (Pvt) Limited and his family members have been threatened for the past several months by unidentified persons.

This has been brought to Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando's notice by the Maharaja Organisation Group Director Priyantha Serasinghe.

According to a press release by the Maharaja Group Ltd., there are certain groups trying to pressurise the independent media to achieve their personal objectives.

"It is important for the public to be alerted on this intimidation to journalist Sri Ranga and his family members as this could affect the independence of the media, the release said.

Journalist Sri Ranga is popular with the Sri Lankan political circle for his Television programme over MTV, Minnal and Shakthi FM programme Erimalai.

He has also interviewed several foreign dignitaries including former Prime Ministers of India, Norway and Foreign Ministers of several countries.