BBC, 26 March 2012 - The senior journalist union leader who was forced to flee Sri Lanka after being brutally attacked has accused a controversial minister of making public statements in order to protect the real perpetrators. Poddala Jayantha was abducted by an unidentified group on 1 June 2009 taken to a hideout, brutally assaulted and left on the street with a broken leg, the next morning. He was forced to leave the country having received death threats due to his refusal to speak up against threats and intimidation even after the attack. After the US-sponsored resolution was passed in Geneva, Public Relations and Public Affairs Minister Mervyn Silva has said that he is the one who forced Mr Jayantha to leave Sri Lanka. I firmly believe that the person who ordered the abduction and the brutal assault on me was a senior defence official," he told BBC Sandeshaya from the United States.

By Poddala Jayantha, June 6, 2011 - I could not live with my conscience if I stayed silent while the regime trampled on the rights of journalists. The only way to have survive the Rajapakse regime was to sell your soul to them, to sacrifice at the alter of the Rajapakse Temple your life, your dignity and your principles. I took my wife and child and left the country of my birth.