Journalist Taridu Uduwaragedara noted in the “Notes Blog” that the arrest of journalist Darshana Hadungoda, who was arrested yesterday (5), was a revenge, and that he had previously exposed the fraud and corruption of Police Minister Tiran Alas, and he was arrested as a revenge. It has also been reported. The complete report of Madhyavedi Tharidu Uduvaragedara is given below.
“– Derana Darshana boycotts being called a journalist!
Darshana Handungoda, the journalist who published a video exposing the fraud and corruption of the Minister in charge of Police, Tiran Alas, has been arrested at the airport, striking a blow to the freedom of the media.
That was when he came to Sri Lanka from abroad.
Sources had recently reported that after exposing the fraud and corruption of the minister in charge of police, the minister is trying to take revenge on him by using the police. In August 2022, Palitha Atampawala, the former president of Bank of Ceylon branch, and Dhananjaya Siriwardena, the secretary of that branch, who were previously exposed for their fraudulent behavior in obtaining Tiran Alas Bank loans, were also arrested in August 2022.
Darshanwa CID’s computer crime wing arrested Tiran Alas as the third person to be arrested for talking about fraud and corruption.
This is another incident that has been arrested while engaging in journalism using the internet in the recent period. Sepal Amarasinghe, who was already running a well-known YouTube channel, was arrested and a process was launched to use the mainstream media to publicly destroy his image.
When the Puwatta Derana website reported that Darshana was arrested, he was referred to as a ‘social media activist’ instead of a ‘journalist’, and they had reported a blow to freedom of the press by arresting a journalist as a sister media organization. I am not sure about Darshana Handungoda’s channel and what kind of things will be broadcasted by channels like Sepal Amarasinghe.
Darshana Handungoda should be produced in court tomorrow. The court should see what kind of accusations will be presented to justify this revenge”.