The ‘Aththa’ newspaper, a publication of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka has been withdrawn from circulation and its newspaper office sealed early this morning on the orders of the Party high command, sources say.
The latest edition of the newspaper which was to hit the news stands today (07) has been thus removed.
The newspaper is edited by the Peradeniya University’s former Department of Fine Arts Head Dr. Michael Fernando.
The ‘Daily Mirror’ website reports a source at the ‘Aththa’ as to saying, “The doors of the newspaper office where all the papers are stored before distribution, was locked and the papers removed early this morning.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Fernando had stated on Facebook that authorities have even removed the online edition.
‘Daily Mirror’ has further reported that when contacted, Communist Party General Secretary and Senior Minister D.E.W. Gunasekara said the “paper was not published” and declined to comment further.
However, Daily Mirror says that they are in possession of a soft copy of the edition that was removed from circulation.
Meanwhile, quoting a ‘Aththa’ journalist, the ‘Ada Derana’ website reports that the newspaper was withdrawn from circulation after an article confirming rumoured disputes within the party over supporting President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was published.
Speaking further, the journalist has added that this was a decision of the party leadership and not a decision of the party politburo or the central committee.
– Sri Lanka Mirror
Read the consored news papaer as a PDf Attha News paper 2014_Nov_09