By S.S.Selvanayagam


Following his apology in court, the Supreme Court today warned and discharged the Editor of the Lanka Irida newspaper from the purported contempt of court charges and directed him to publish a correction against a news item which appeared in the paper in June.

The charges against the Editor were taken up before the Bench comprising Chief Justice Asoka de Silva and Justice N.G.Amaratunga. The Editor was also directed to publish the corrections with the same prominence in his newspaper.

Editor Chandana Ratnayake expressed his regret for the publication of the said news item in dispute.

He told Court that he or the editorial board of “Lanka Irida Sangraha” or Lanka Fast Publishers Ltd did not have any intention directly or indirectly of bringing the Judiciary into contempt by publishing the news items titled “He the President influences the Judiciary to reinstate a bribery suspect or by its title published in the in the issue of Lanka Irida Sangraha on June 27, 2010.

In the Rule it was stated that the Chief Justice and the other judges of the Supreme Court were of the view that the above newspaper article amount to contempt of court of the Supreme Court warranting proceedings to be brought against the Editor.