[Channel 4 News]

One week after broadcast, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields has been watched by over a million viewers in the UK* and over 270,000 views worldwide on VoD. The film has been viewed on 4oD in over 30 countries. On Tuesday, the film was screened to diplomats and US media in New York. United Nations missions from the US, India, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and East Timor attended. The Sri Lankan government sent a delegation of eight with Mr Palitha T.B. Kohona, Ambassador & Permanent Representative of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the United Nations and Brigadier Shavendra de Silva both speaking after the film.

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[AFP]
Sri Lanka’s government censured a senior international diplomat after he spoke at the funeral of a newspaper editor whose murder has been blamed on the island’s rulers, officials said Wednesday. German ambassador Jurgen Weerth was ordered to the Colombo foreign office and told of Sri Lanka’s anger over his graveside eulogy for Lasantha Wickrematunga, officials who declined to be named told AFP. Wickrematunga, who was shot by unknown gunmen as he drove to work, was the editor of the Sunday Leader and was fiercely critical of government policy, especially its bloody and costly war against Tamil rebels. “Weerth was summoned to the foreign ministry on Tuesday and the Foreign Secretary (Palitha Kohona) expressed Sri Lanka’s displeasure and concern over his remarks,” a source at the ministry said.

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