BBC suspends Sri Lanka FM reports
[BBC]
The BBC World Service is to stop providing radio news to Sri Lanka’s state broadcaster because of what it calls “deliberate interference”. A statement said FM broadcasts to the Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation would be suspended from Tuesday. The BBC said many of its news reports in Sinhala, Tamil and English had been blocked or only partially broadcast. The SLBC chairman admitted censoring BBC programming, saying he had a duty to do so at a time of war. “The BBC made it clear to SLBC that such interference and blocking meant that BBC programming was being editorially compromised by SLBC’s actions and this was contrary to the BBC’s contractual agreement with SLBC.