A Sunday Leader journalist, Nirmala Kannangara, and photographer were stopped from entering the Suriyapuram camp in Nanthikadal by army officers last week.
The journalist and photographer were also threatened to not write anything detrimental about the army officers.
The Sunday Leader team was met with hostility, with one of the officers warning the journalist to “mind her business.”
After shouting at the pair, “You people are paid by NGOs and whatever they ask, you are prepared to dance to their tunes” the army officer went on to describe the reporting of detrimental issues in Sri Lanka as “not right”.
The photographer, Thushitha, was eventually surrounded by rifle wielding guards and forced to delete most of the photos that he had taken.
The Sunday Leader’s attempts to investigate the camp, where the last batch of Manick Farm IDP’s were brought to despite government claims that they were re-settled in their villages, proved unsuccessful and the party was forced to reverse back to the main road.
See here for the journalist’s full encounter with the camp guards.
