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There is a trend of sharing posts on social media claiming that politicians have made various statements regarding events that are causing controversy in society. This is a fact check we conducted on a post that was created and released on social media in this way.
Social Media Posts:
Claim 01:
The Deputy Minister of Public Security has made a statement saying that the police cut a cake on the birthday of Ishara Sewwandi, who is currently being interrogated at the Colombo Crimes Division and is accused of the murder of Ganemulla Sanjeewa, considering her mental state, and that it was a very humane decision. This post has been posted in the same format as the post on the official Facebook page of Newswire.
Steps were taken to check the accuracy of this.
Fact Check 01:
A media outlet recently reported the following information regarding the birthday party of Ishara Sewwandi, who was arrested and brought to Sri Lanka after fleeing to Nepal after being accused of the murder of Ganemulla Sanjeewa and is being interrogated at the Colombo Crimes Division. The Police Media Spokesperson also stated that disciplinary action has been taken against the OIC of the division regarding the incident. Details here, here, and here.
Accordingly, we initially investigated the Facebook page because the post circulating on social media, allegedly made by Deputy Minister Sunil Watagala regarding this incident, was similar to the Newswire format. However, our investigation confirmed that no such post or news was reported on that Facebook page or website.
Meanwhile, Newswire has stressed in a post on its Facebook page that it has not posted the content being shared on social media on its official Facebook page. It also states that the relevant post circulating on social media is a fake post created by forging the Newswire post format and official logo.
Minister Sunil Watagala’s Media Secretary
When we inquired, the Media Secretary of Public Security Deputy Minister Sunil Watagala stated that the post circulating on social media, which claims to have been made by the Deputy Minister, is completely false. The Media Secretary also stated that the Deputy Minister has not made any statement regarding the incident.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister has also posted on their Facebook page, stating that the relevant post is false.
Claim 02:
This post claimed that Minister of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development Sunil Handunnetti said he could not travel from Colombo to Polonnaruwa in a Maruti, that a minister needs a fast and comfortable vehicle to travel from one place to another in the country, and that it is uncivilized to create hatred in the minds of the public about ministers by posting the vehicles used by ministers on social media.
This post, which had been widely commented on and shared, was further shared on social media as follows (Archived Link), as follows (Archived Link), and as follows (Archived Link).
Considering requests received from readers to verify its authenticity, we took the following steps to conduct a fact-check on this matter.
Fact Check 02:
Last week, Minister Sunil Handunnetti’s use of a V8 luxury car to inspect factories in the Polonnaruwa area created a lot of buzz in the mainstream media, as well as on social media.
Here and here show how the mainstream media reported the Minister’s use of a V8 vehicle to travel to Polonnaruwa, along with the Minister’s request to the public to use electricity sparingly to deal with the energy crisis that has arisen due to the war situation, at the Matara District Coordination Committee on March 24th. Meanwhile, the above social media posts are being shared claiming that the Minister did this, creating a buzz around that incident.
However, in such an environment, if the minister had made a statement that he needed a fast and comfortable vehicle to travel from one place to another in the country, it should have been reported by the mainstream media. However, no media outlet has reported such a story. Accordingly, it is confirmed to some extent that the social media post is not true.
Sunil Handunnetti, Minister’s Media Secretary
The Minister’s Media Secretary, Sunil Handunnetti, also stated in our inquiry that the Minister has not made any statement circulating on social media, such as that a minister needs a fast and comfortable vehicle to travel from one place to another in the country. Furthermore, the Media Secretary stated that although the Minister normally uses a cab, it had been sent for repairs at the time, so the Minister had to use another vehicle allocated by the Ministry that day. At the same time, the Minister also posted on his Facebook page that the post circulating on social media was false.
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Conclusion:
Our investigation shows that Deputy Minister of Public Security Sunil Watagala has not made any statement claiming that the police cut the cake on Sewwandi’s birthday out of consideration for her mental state, nor has he posted it on Newswire’s official Facebook page.
Simultaneously, Minister Sunil Handunnetti has not made any statement circulating on social media, such as that a minister needs a fast and comfortable vehicle to travel from one place in the country to another.
Title: Fake social media posts falsely attributed to Deputy Minister Sunil Watagala and Minister Sunil Handunnetti
Fact Check By: Sagarika Chathumali
Result: False
