10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. Nalin Hewage - Deputy Minister of Vocational Education

Jathika Jana balawegaya· Galle· 9 July 2025 ·Oral question: Questions under Standing Order 27(2): Paddy Purchase, Rice Import, Horticultural Crops; Question of Privilege

Justice & Human RightsParliamentary Procedure
AI summary generated by gpt-5.5

Nalin Hewage raised a Question of Privilege alleging that several media outlets published or broadcast false and defamatory material about him, including reports in “Ada” on 28 and 29 May 2025, an “Aruna” article on 1 June 2025, and a “Giru” TV segment the same day. He denied making the statement attributed to him as Chairman of the Galle District Coordinating Committee and requested that the matter be referred through the Deputy Speaker to the Speaker for a proper inquiry.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to raise a Question of Privilege. While we respect the Fourth Estate and its social responsibility, a small section of media acts as extensions of political mudslinging, violating ethics and attempting character assassination.

¶ 02 The “Ada” newspaper of 28.05.2025 carried a false report attributing to me, as Chairman of the Galle District Coordinating Committee, a statement I never made. On 29.05.2025, the same newspaper published a follow-up quoting the Defence Ministry Secretary rejecting the false statement attributed to me.

¶ 03 Further, on 01.06.2025, the “Aruna” newspaper carried a full-page so-called “investigative” article by Upul Galappaththi filled with falsehoods, clearly aimed at defamation; I categorically reject it. The “Giru” TV channel’s programme “Paththare Visthare” of 01.06.2025 also broadcast false content for over two and a half minutes, further attempting character assassination. I respectfully request a proper inquiry through you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, via the Hon. Speaker.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Wednesday, 9 July 2025 ·No. 1752660241032216 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
Page · column
not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
Permalink
/lk/speeches/9237

Cite as: The Hon. Nalin Hewage - Deputy Minister of Vocational Education. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 9 July 2025. No. 1752660241032216. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/9237