Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake states that he never said that the New York Times (NYT) journalist received information from the Criminal Investigation Division (CID).
He said this responding to an inquiry Ada Derana made with regard to the statement he made earlier on the subject and the journalist Maria Abi-Habib’s tweet posted yesterday (30).
At a press conference held on the 29th June, the Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake said that he had discussed the matter with the NYT journalist who reported the news.
However, the journalist posting on her Twitter account yesterday stated that the Deputy Minister had ‘spun’ what she told him over the phone.
On her Twitter Habib posted: “Interesting because our article is based on many sources and I never tell anyone who my sources are (except my editors). This minister is spinning what I told him on the phone: that I would NOT help him and didn’t want to get involved in political mud slinging. The article speaks for itself.”
Accordingly, we inquired the Deputy Minister Ramanayake regarding his statement and the journalist’s tweet.
Ramanayake stated that he did speak with the journalist and that he cannot disclose anything further.
