Journalists in Batticaloa who went the cover the Batticaloa District Coordination Committee meeting were denied permission to attend or report on the meeting, which led to a collective of journalists protesting outside the District Secretariat.
The journalists who had been routinely reporting on the meetings in the past were in for a rude shock when they were told they could not be allowed inside nor report on the discussions. The journalists reasoned that they had been reporting on the proceedings of the Batticaloa District Coordination Meetings in the past
It is learned that the journalists' requests to enter the meeting room were ignored which led to a protest by the journalists outside the District Secretariat. The journalists protested asking why the media was being censored in Batticaloa. State Minister for Trade S. Viyalendran and member of parliament Rasamanickam R.Shanakiyan who spoke to the journalists gave their assurance that they would discuss with the chairperson of the Coordination committee to resolve the issue.
MP Shanakiyan during the meeting asked the chair as to why the journalists were not allowed to cover the proceedings. “These are journalists who have got their media accreditation from the Media Ministry, then they should be allowed to cover these proceedings,” he said. “The journalists will come and take what’s important. This is their job and they should be allowed to do it. At the same time, we are going to talk about Amul's investments and some of these projects which might be important for them to cover. “
