ITN Chairman Rosmand Senaratne yesterday rejected claims made by UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake at a Sunday news conference that the ITN had said the video clip containing images of people displaying LTTE flags at the UNP May Day rally in Jaffna was sent by the Defence Ministry. In a letter sent to UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake, Mr. Senaratne had said that the video clips had been handed over to the Defence Ministry but Mr. Karunanayake had distorted what was in the letter. "A report headlined, 'Clips came from Defence Ministry - ITN' is based on a news conference held by UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake and published in the front page of yesterday's Daily Mirror. What Mr. Karunanayake has said is baseless and unwarranted. In fact, I sent a letter to UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake not in response to a query made by Mr. Karunanayake, but in response to a letter sent by the UNP General Secretary to me on May 2. At the news conference Mr. Karunanayake has totally distorted the contents of that letter," Mr. Senaratne said.

"At the news conference Mr. Karunanayayake had said that ITN Chairman Rosmand Senaratne had sent them a letter saying that what they telecast was a video clip provided by the Defence Ministry. The headline in your newspaper and the contents of your article are based on this statement made by Mr. Karunanayake. This is a total distortion," he said.

The letter sent by ITN clearly mentions that this video clip had been handed over to the Defence Ministry. "Making such a grave statement by distorting facts and giving wide publicity to it is a disdainful act committed by Mr. Karunanayake," Mr. Senaratne said.

Source: Daily Mirror - Sri Lanka