Old Video or Recent? The Truth About the Justice Minister's Footage - Fact Crescendo Sri Lanka English

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When a grainy clip appeared to show Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara going Facebook Live from behind the wheel, Sri Lankan social media lit up. Users shared it as proof that a sitting cabinet minister was livestreaming while driving on a main road on 13 August 2026, and the comments piled on. We investigated. Here is what we found.

Social Media Posts

“This is our Justice Minister going LIVE while driving, “රිය පදවන ගමන් LIVE එන්නේ අපේ රටේ අධිකරණ ඇමති තුමා නේ”).

Facebook

Others shared the same clip as footage the minister had recorded himself on his phone while driving.

Facebook | Facebook

Fact-Check

The clip is blurry, and the appeal echoes an old stunt

At first glance, the poor quality and blurriness of the videos pointed to old footage. The minister’s words in the clip also mirrored a well-known appeal made years earlier by gem businessman Priyan Pushpakumara, known as Priyan Manik, who once went Facebook Live here while rushing a patient to hospital and asking motorists to give way.

A reverse image search traced the video to August 2023

Because no such recent video appeared on the minister’s official Facebook page or account, we ran a reverse image search on several frames. This showed the video had circulated since 13 August 2023.

It was shared here, here, and here.

It was first posted on a Facebook page called Moratuwa JVP.

The full video is a 2023 election invitation

The full clip shows Harshana Nanayakkara, then the Moratuwa electorate organizer, announcing that the Moratuwa National People’s Power (NPP) electorate conference would be held on 13 August at 3 p.m., with Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Harini Amarasuriya and other party members attending.

No such meeting happened in 2026, but the 2023 event is on record

We checked whether a meeting like this took place in Moratuwa at 3 p.m. on 13 August 2026. No report confirmed one. An event attended by the President and Prime Minister would have drawn heavy mainstream coverage, yet none existed.

We then checked the 2023 date. A mainstream outlet had reported the Soisapura, Moratuwa event that day, where NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake and MP Harini Amarasuriya, now President and Prime Minister, appeared. You can watch that report here.

The minister did not film it himself

Although the posts claimed the minister recorded the video himself, the full footage shows him driving with both hands on the wheel while a person in the front passenger seat filmed him.

The Ministry of Justice and the original page both confirmed it is old

The Media Division of the Ministry of Justice confirmed the video was recorded in 2023, before Nanayakkara became a minister, and is now being recirculated as recently. We also reached the Moratuwa JVP page that first posted it. A former JVP Moratuwa media officer who recorded the clip confirmed it was made by then-organizer Harshana Nanayakkara to invite supporters to that evening’s meeting and was not recorded recently.

The clip spread again on 13 August because the minister says “Today is August 13” in it, making it look like a same-day recording. In fact, it dates to 2023, before the NPP government took office, and was filmed by someone seated beside the driver rather than the minister himself.

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Conclusion

The video shared as recent footage of the Justice Minister driving on the expressway on 13 August 2026 was actually recorded on 13 August 2023. It captures a 2023 NPP election invitation, not a current livestream, and it was filmed by a person in the front passenger seat rather than by the minister himself.

Both the Media Division of the Ministry of Justice and the original Moratuwa JVP page that first posted the clip confirmed the footage is old. We therefore rate this claim Misleading.