Protest by ITN employees: 13 interdicted

Thirteen employees of the State-owned Independent Television Network (ITN) were interdicted on Monday accusing them of have carried out a protest campaign against the management, some employees claimed today.

A member of the 'collective to protect ITN', Sujith Vidanapathirana told Daily Mirror that the ITN security unit had been instructed in writing not to allow the 13 employees to enter the ITN premises stating that they were interdicted.

He said about 400 ITN employees including the interdicted 13 employees had been engaged in the protest campaign urging the authorities not to make political appointments leading to inefficiency and the collapse of the institute.

Mr. Vidanapathirana said except for Chairman and working director, all other appointments should be free of political intervention.

“ITN ratings have dropped to the sixth or seventh position due to the inefficiency of the management. Most of the employees irrespective of political differences are engaged in the protest for the sake of the institution,” he said.

Mr. Vidanapathirana said they were engaged in the protest for the third day yesterday but there was no response from the management to resolve this issue and said the current chairperson was acting on a part-time basis and stressed the need to appoint a full-time head to uplift the ITN.

Repeated attempts by the Daily Mirror to contact the ITN chairperson had failed.

Mr. Vidanapathirana said last evening the current chairperson through the ITN General Manager had informed the other protesting employees that if they did not rerun to work by this morning, action would be taken to interdict them as well.

However, the protesting employees vowed to continue their protest until their demands were met.