{"id":122432,"date":"2014-03-29T15:50:50","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T10:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=122432"},"modified":"2014-04-15T04:28:41","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T22:58:41","slug":"two-senior-bbc-sinhala-service-producers-suspended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/two-senior-bbc-sinhala-service-producers-suspended\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Senior BBC Sinhala Service Producers Suspended"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two senior producers of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=BBC+Sinhala&amp;x=10&amp;y=7\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sinhala Sandeshiya Service<\/span><\/a> of the BBC World Service have been suspended from service until further notice, allegedly on charges of harassment, Colombo Telegraph reliably learns.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_60687\" style=\"width: 230px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/\u2018BBC-World-service-Journalist-Chandana-Keerthi-Bandara.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-60687\" class=\"size-full wp-image-60687\" alt=\"Bandara\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/\u2018BBC-World-service-Journalist-Chandana-Keerthi-Bandara.jpg\" width=\"220\" height=\"292\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-60687\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bandara<\/p><\/div>\n<p>According to inside sources, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Chandana+Keerthi+Bandara&amp;x=10&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Chandana Keerthi Bandara<\/span><\/a> and M.J.R. David have been suspended few days ago by the BBC, after two controversial recruits \u2013 one from Sinhala Service and the other from Tamil Service made official complaints against the duo.<\/p>\n<p>Although the BBC on previous occasions have, in fact, commented on cases of this nature, a BBC World Service Spokesman when contacted by Colombo Telegraph, declined to comment \u201con individual cases\u201d in this particular case.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We do not comment on individual cases but where we find instances of misconduct they will be dealt with. The BBC is leading the industry in the way we support staff with complaints and this includes maintaining a confidential and fair process,\u201d BBC World Service Spokesman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Paul+Rasmussen&amp;x=5&amp;y=8\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Paul Rasmussen<\/span><\/a>\u00a0told Colombo Telegraph.<\/p>\n<p>The BBC spokesman however, did not deny the suspension of its two Senior Producers attached to the Sinhala Service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that we do not comment on individual cases does not indicate that the BBC accepts that suggestions put to us by any newspaper are factually accurate,&#8221; the BBC spokesman said.<\/p>\n<p>The Colombo Telegraph has been unable to reach Bandara or David for comment.<\/p>\n<p>As we reported earlier, there is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/bbc-complaints-saga-liyanages-complaint-against-bandara-is-under-investigation\/\">another case<\/a><\/span> against Chandana Keerthi Bandara also pending. This was based on a complaint made by former editor of the Sinhala Service <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Priyath+Liyanage&amp;x=9&amp;y=6\">Priyath Liyanage<\/a><\/span>, who was also suspended once and sent for rehabilitation twice within the past two years for breaching the BBC\u2019s code of conduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":60687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Two Senior BBC Sinhala Service Producers Suspended - 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