Future arrest of Journalists:

President to be informed

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to be informed whenever a journalist is arrested in connection with his professional duties, Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said yesterday.

In case of any other offence the normal procedure of the law will take its course, the Minister added.

According to Minister Abeywardena, the President had clearly stated that the journalists should have the right and freedom to write. He has issued instructions to the Media Minister in connection with the future procedure on how to deal with possible arrests of journalists. Hereafter, whenever a journalist is required to be arrested, this should be informed to the Media Minister and he will inform the President.

Thereafter, the President will issue instructions to the Minister and he will inform the IGP. The relevant notification was sent to the IGP yesterday by the Media Ministry Secretary in writing.

Hereafter organisations which use `arresting journalists' in order to earn money and build up public opinions locally and internationally will not be able to do so because now no journalists will be arrested for what they write.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already issued instructions in this regard, Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said.

He said earlier several `organisations' took political advantages by using the incidents where journalists were arrested for various reasons. Some of those `organizations' entirely depended on those arrests.

They earned a large amount of funds just staging `protests' against such arrests. The way those organizations earned money using the arrests of journalists will be revealed to the country shortly, the Minister added.