Kumar camp claims TV talk blocked

A television interview of controversial left camp political activist Kumar Gunaratnam had been prevented from being telecast due to external influence from the top, the Frontline Socialist Party charged yesterday.

Police used sniffer dogs to scan the crime scene and found a large kitchen knife, which might have been the used in the killing, in the shrub jungle near the house.

Party Spokesman Pubudu Jayagoda said the television channel, Independent Television Network (ITN), had telecast a number of trailers of the interview until a few hours prior to airing the interview on Thursday April 2 at 10 pm.

“Such teasers were aired till around 7.00 p.m. on Thursday. We facilitated the interview of Kumar Gunaratnam. We assume a top influential hand had led to the television’s decision to prevent the interview from being telecast. However, we didn’t ask the television channel as to why it had decided so,” he said.

Rejecting claims of external influence to prevent the interview from being telecast, ITN Working Director Dhanushka Ramanayake said the decision was taken following instructions of the institute’s legal advisors and the decision was taken only to ‘suspend’ the interview and not to stop.

“The decision was taken under the instructions of legal advisors because of the nature of the person who was interviewed. Securing the future of the institute was also a reason for the suspension. However, the decision is not permanent and we will telecast the interview once we receive the advisors’ approval,” he said.