Sri Lanka allows 'mercenaries' Channel 4 to cover CHOGM

Colombo: Britain’s Channel 4, whose staff was blacklisted in Sri Lanka after it produced a documentary on alleged war crimes in the nation, was today allowed into the country to cover the CHOGM summit amidst protest by nationalist groups. [caption id=“attachment_1223617” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A videograb of protests outside Colombo airport.[/caption] “We have given them a chance to correct themselves. They did a lot of damage through their misinformation campaign. We branded them mercenaries,” Keheliya Rambukwella the Minister of Information said. On their arrival, the team was mobbed by protesters angry at their reporting of the army’s actions during the final days of the civil war in the country. The channel 4 has aired a series of documentaries which highlighted alleged human rights abuses carried out by the government troops in the last stages of government’s military campaign against the LTTE. Their documentaries titled ‘Sri Lanka killing fields’ and ’no fire zone’ was condemned by the government which described them as fabrications. A group calling itself the Forum to Build National Harmony staged a protest at the Colombo airport when the Channel 4 crew landed. They later moved to the crew’s Colombo hotel front to demonstrate. “We protest to the government for giving them visas,” a protester said. Sources said the British authorities had made it mandatory for Sri Lanka to ensure media access into the country. PTI