A television cameraman has been arrested over the alleged assault of a police sergeant attached to former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s security detail, hours after the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association called for an impartial investigation into the incident.
The arrest was made at the Slave Island Police station when the camera operator arrived to give a statement, Hiru News reported. He had been summoned the previous day and reported to the station accompanied by an attorney.
What happened outside court
The incident occurred on 30 September near the entrance to the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court, as Wickremesinghe was leaving a hearing in the case over the alleged misuse of state funds for a 2023 trip to the United Kingdom.
The officer was admitted to the National Hospital in Colombo after allegedly being struck on the head with a camera, and lodged a complaint with Slave Island Police, the Daily Mirror reported.
Hiru names the officer as police sergeant A. H. Mahesh Ranjan of the Ministerial Security Division — a detail neither of the other reports carries — and says footage filmed by other journalists at the scene was subsequently shared widely on social media.
The union’s position: “who obstructed whom?”
The Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA) called for a prompt, fair and impartial police investigation, framing the question as a two-sided one, Newswire reported.
The association said the inquiry should determine whether the security officer’s duties had been obstructed, or whether the journalist’s ability to carry out his professional duties and exercise media freedom had been interfered with. Both journalists’ right to report to the public and the safety of security officers on duty must be protected, it said.
The statement was issued by SLWJA President Ranga Bandaranayake and the association’s general secretary.
What is not established
The allegation is untested. None of the three reports names the cameraman or his broadcaster, describes the extent of the sergeant’s injuries, states what charges are contemplated, or says whether the arrested journalist has been produced before a magistrate or granted bail.
No account from the cameraman or his employer had been published at the time of writing, and no outlet has reported what preceded the contact — the point on which the SLWJA has asked police to make a finding. Readers should note that Hiru’s own headline wording characterises the journalist’s conduct in terms a court has not yet tested.
