{"id":57447,"date":"2012-10-25T00:10:21","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T00:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=57447"},"modified":"2019-11-04T09:27:34","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T03:57:34","slug":"wikileaks-gothabaya-downplayed-his-involvement-in-media-intimidation-blake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-gothabaya-downplayed-his-involvement-in-media-intimidation-blake\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: Gotabaya Downplayed His Involvement In Media Intimidation &#8211; Blake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\">Colombo Telegraph<\/a><\/span> &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Gotabaya downplayed his involvement in media intimidation, claiming that recent reports of his threatening the Daily Mirror Editor were inaccurate (ref A). He admitted that he did call her, but &#8216;only as a friend, and only out of concern for her safety&#8217; after she wrote an article critical of Karuna. His intent, he said, was to warn her that if she continued to write negative things about Karuna, she would make an enemy of him. (In a subsequent meeting, the editor told Boucher that Gotabaya&#8217;s exchange with her was much more threatening than he implied.) Gotabaya added that because of the incident, the President has instructed him not to talk to the media in the future. He asserted that the Sri Lankan media is 100 percent anti-government and pro-opposition. Boucher warned that any appearance of threats against the media will earn Sri Lanka negative attention and that the Government should be careful about creating this perception.&#8221; the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-gothabaya-downplayed-his-involvement-in-media-intimidation-blake\/gotabhya-rajapaksa\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-57448\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-57448\" title=\"Gotabhya Rajapaksa\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Gotabhya-Rajapaksa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"246\" \/><\/a>A Leaked \u201cCONFIDENTIAL\u201d US diplomatic cable, dated May 15, 2007, recounts the details of a meeting the US\u00a0Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Richard+Boucher&amp;x=6&amp;y=5\">Richard Boucher<\/a><\/span>\u00a0has had with Secretary to the Ministry of\u00a0Defence \u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Gothabaya+Rajapaksa&amp;x=8&amp;y=9\">Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in Colombo on May 10, 2007. The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/\">Colombo Telegraph<\/a>\u00a0found the related leaked cable from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=WikiLeaks&amp;x=9&amp;y=7\">WikiLeaks<\/a>\u00a0database which is classified by the ambassador Robert O. Blake.<\/p>\n<p>Related\u00a0stories to this cable;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-mahinda-produced-upali-tennakoon-to-justify-his-claim\/\">WikiLeaks: Mahinda Produced Upali Tennakoon To Justify His Claim<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a title=\"WikiLeaks: Gota Will Call And Threaten, Mahinda Will Then Follow Up By Saying Not To Worry \u2013 Lasantha Wickrematunge To US\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-gota-will-call-and-threaten-mahinda-will-then-follow-up-by-saying-not-to-worry-lasantha-wickrematunge-to-us\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">WikiLeaks: Gota Will Call And Threaten, Mahinda Will Then Follow Up By Saying Not To Worry \u2013 Lasantha Wickrematunge To US<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":57448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,2375,27],"tags":[5881,5877,4424,5878,5876,5880,5849,5879],"class_list":["post-57447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-stories","category-wikileaks","tag-attacks-on-media-sri-lanka","tag-boucher-and-gothabaya","tag-gotabhaya-rajapaksa-in-wikileaks","tag-gothabaya-rajapaksa-press-freedom-sri-lanka-wikileaks","tag-gothabaya-threatening-the-daily-mirror-editor","tag-press-freedom-sri-lanka","tag-richard-boucher-colombo-telegraph","tag-richard-bouchers-visits-to-sri-lanka"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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