Cabinet Spokesman, Minister of Mass Media and Information Dullas Alahapperuma stated that the summoning of journalists to the CID should not happen in a civilized society and that he, as the Minister, regrets the incident.

The Minister said that the government condemned this incident and it should not have happened in the first place.

The Minister also said that the Prime Minister had told him that journalists should never be summoned to the police or the CID for questioning, adding that the Minister in charge of the subject Sarath Weerasekera had previosly stated that CID officers would never be sent to media institutions.

Despite such assurances, a team of officers from the CID visited the Lankadeepa office at Hunupitiya Cross Road this morning (28) to question the Editor-in-Chief of Lankadeepa and its correspondents regarding the statements made by the former Executive Director of the Consumer Affairs Authority, Thushan Gunawardena.

The Minister was responding to a question raised by a journalist at a media briefing held at the Government Information Department today (28) regarding the incident