Photo journalists’ Assn condemns Parliament incident

The Photo Journalists Association of Sri Lanka in a statement yesterday condemned the incident in Parliament on Wednesday where photographers of the electronic and print media had to return empty handed without an opportunity to cover the presentation of the Budget in the House.

The statement signed by Association President Srilal Gomes and Secretary Denzil Pathiraja said the photographers went to cover the presentation of the Budget on the invitation of the Government Information Department.

The photographers who were first taken to the Parliament Gallery were thereafter removed from there and detained near the entrance to the Parliament library where as the President had entered the Parliament building from the VIP entrance and started delivering the Budget speech.

In this situation, all photographers had to return empty handed without taking a single picture regarding this presentation of this Budget.

This unfortunate incident had occurred due to poor co-ordination on the part of a junior officer said to be from the Information Department who was in-charge of handling the photographers.

Lapses of this nature would even put the country’s first citizen into unnecessary inconvenience. Therefore the Association requested the President to initiate an independent investigation into this matter and direct officials to prevent repetition of such incidents in the future.