A plainclothes police officer has obstructed a journalist on 12 July 2021 who went to cover the hindrances caused by Railway Department officials to the public in Vavuniya regarding the work on the Sri Lankan President’s Sowbhagya Village Program.
In line with the program, a village-wide Sowbaghya event is being organized in Santhacholai. Accordingly, the inaugural event of the Sowbaghya Paneer Production Program will be held tomorrow in the village.
The public who went there to organize the event were stopped by the Railway Department officials from Anuradhapura and prevented from performing their duties. The matter was reported to the Divisional Secretary through the Grama Niladhari of the area.
Following this, the Divisional Secretary went to the scene, discussed with the Railway Department officials and thwarted the attempts to prevent the incidents from taking place tomorrow.
A plainclothes police officer then interfered with the duties of a journalist who went to cover the incident and threatened him.
This incident points to the decline in freedom of the press in Sri Lanka and the growing climate of fear that journalists, particularly Tamil ones, in the island operate under.