TNS Corner
Sri Lanka: President takes media ministry, armed group destroys MBC-MTV station

Jan 6, 2009, 04:25

By David Sabapathy - TNS

COLOMBO - With in a week the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa takes control of the Ministry of Mass Media and Information, an armed group of about 20 men had forcibly entered the Depanama, Pannipitiya MBC-MTV transmission station and set the Main Controlling Room (MCR) on fire after vandalizing the whole complex, according to media sources in the capital Colombo.

Main Controlling Room (MCR)

The heavily armed group of men who had come with their faces masked, had fired into the complex, assaulted the staff they came upon, while smashing up everything in their way.

An MTV employee told TNS a group of persons had arrived in a white van and a jeep around 2.00 am, armed with automatic rifles, assaulted security guards, taken away their phones and entered the complex. Some employees had been badly assaulted while another had been dragged with a pistol held to the head to find where the MCR, the employee further said.

The MTV broadcasting group which owns the popular Sirasa, MTV and Shakthi television channels as well as a string of popular radio stations earn the dislike of the Sri Lankan ruling elite for a while now.

Only last Saturday an unidentified gang has hurled petrol bombs at the MBC/MTV station complex damaging the complex slightly. “Even after that incident, there were no effort from the government to prevent any further attack and now on the second attack the station is completely guttered,” said a media activist in the capital.

Media organizations expressed shock and disbelief on the scale of the latest attack and continues immunity enjoy by the attackers against the media personals in Sri Lanka.

Broadcasting of all MBC FM channels and telecasting of all MTV channels temporarily disrupted following the attach, MTV sources told TNS that alternate arrangements are already underway to begin transmissions.