A leading Colombo-based think tank, the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), has filed a complaint before Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission against a state-owned television network over a news broadcast last July which claimed the CPA had organised a meeting in support of the LTTE. The complaint is to be heard Thursday.

Independent Television Network (ITN) launched in April 1979 as a private company, was taken over by the Sri Lankan government in June 1979 and declared a Government Owned Public Company in April 1992.

The complaint filed by CPA and its executive director, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, against ITN and its chairman, Rosmand Senaratne, concerns a Sinhala language news broadcast on 14 July 2013.

The broadcast claimed CPA and Dr. Saravanamuttu organised a meeting in Ampara that day to "further the interests of the LTTE" and that the meeting was cut short due to the intervention of Buddhist clergy and public of the area.

Stating "no employee of CPA or its Executive Director organized or was present at any meeting in Ampara on 14th July 2013," the complaint said "the language used by ITN in its news item was incendiary and it intentionally distorted the facts with the aim to arouse public opinion against CPA and its Executive Director and lower their standing in the eyes of the public."

A letter CPA sent to ITN categorically denying the claims of the news report and requesting a correction and an apology be aired with the same prominence of the report had not been heeded, the complaint said.

Instead, "the conduct of the defendants after receipt of the letter is indicative of their mala fide intentions and constitutes a continuous violation of the complainants’ Fundamental Rights", the complaint said, without elaborating.

See a copy of the complaint here.