{"id":192933,"date":"2018-08-22T16:50:54","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T11:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=192933"},"modified":"2018-10-09T13:30:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T08:00:40","slug":"bbc-bars-azzam-ameen-from-media-conferences-and-political-interviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/bbc-bars-azzam-ameen-from-media-conferences-and-political-interviews\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Bars Azzam Ameen From Media Conferences And Political Interviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The BBC has officially banned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Azzam+Ameen\">Azzam Ameen<\/a>\u00a0from conducting political interviews or attending press conferences, Colombo Telegraph learns.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_192935\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Azzam-Ameen-1.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-192935\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-192935\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Azzam-Ameen-1-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Azzam-Ameen-1-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Azzam-Ameen-1-45x45.jpeg 45w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Azzam-Ameen-1.jpeg 202w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-192935\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Azzam Ameen<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ameen, who has built a considerable reputation for being a fearless and probing journalist who was also recently adjudged the most popular journalist in social media, has been informed by his superiors that he will not be allowed to do political interviews or attend press conferences.<\/p>\n<p>While reasons have not been given, sources say that the move is possibly related to a recent story filed by Ameen that forced President Maithripala Sirisena to stop the appointment of a controversial figure as Anuruddha Polgampola as the Timber Corporation Chairman.<\/p>\n<p>Sources add, that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=BBC+Sinhala\">BBC Sinhala<\/a>&#8216;s chief\u00a0Sangeeth Kalubowila<em>,<\/em>\u00a0is a close friend of Dharmasiri\u00a0Bandara Ekanayake, the\u00a0Senior media Director to the President at President&#8217;s Office\u00a0and both of them earlier worked together at thee media organisation MTV (Sirasa).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Issue is that. They are trying to control even international media through their links,&#8221; sources told Colombo Telegraph.<\/p>\n<p>To read related posts on\u00a0BBC Sinhala click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=BBC+Sinhala\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":192934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BBC Bars Azzam Ameen From Media Conferences And Political Interviews - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/bbc-bars-azzam-ameen-from-media-conferences-and-political-interviews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BBC Bars Azzam Ameen From Media Conferences And Political Interviews - 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