A recently retired Army major general, Major General Sunil Silva, has been appointed to take charge of the administration of the state controlled Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) television, according to informed sources in the government.It’s also reliably learnt that the Presidents’ brother and the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is behind the latest move as well. Major General Sunil Silva has been appointed to the newly created post of Additional Deputy Director General, Administration, of the SLRC. Reporters Without Borders Tuesday called for an explanation from President Mahinda Rajapakse after the army took control of public Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) television on Monday.

The army and police sealed off all roads leading to the station in the morning, preventing more than 200 staff from getting to work, after employees threatened to strike in protest against a series of assaults by men "suspected of acting on behalf of the government". "The head of state should immediately order the army to withdraw from the station. This is in no way a good solution for ending escalating violence against SLRC staff since December 2007", the worldwide press freedom organisation said. 

The new appointment is a latest twist to the continuing crisis within the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation.  At least five staff were physically assaulted in the past few weeks, some of them even suffering serious knife wounds. All of them had protested at the actions of the Labour Minister, Mervyn Silva, who led a raid on the studios and assaulted SLRC's news director on December 27, 2007.

Bishop of Colombo, the Rt Revd Duleep de Chickera in a statement said, “The values of a democratic system that should spontaneously protect them and uphold their rights as citizens of this country, have sadly eroded.”  “All other democratic institutions including the Opposition seem hopelessly incapable of correcting this very dangerous trend,” he further said in his statement. 

“Recent news reports about the continuing harassment and arrests of media persons are both disturbing and frustrating. Today the focus of the whole Nation is on the brazen and systematic violence against several Rupavahini media persons, and the recent arrest and indefinite detention without access to lawyers of a group of journalists associated with a news web site and printing press. These media persons and their families, friends and colleagues feel utterly helpless and vulnerable and have no one to turn to for justice,” he said.

Questioning the conduct of the state police force the Bishop said, “The current trend of attacks against the Rupavahini staff in the absence of any arrests of the perpetrators is an indictment against the entire police force. The IGP must explain why the quality of intelligence leading to prompt arrests and investigations of those considered enemies of the State, is so clearly lacking in instances when certain media personnel are harassed and attacked by supposedly small time criminals. This disparity in the seriousness of the State law enforcement and protection mechanisms raises questions of professional bias and political obstruction and is totally unacceptable.”