A series of false articles published targeting the conference with the NPP!

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The spread of false information about the presidential candidates targeting the Presidential Election has intensified during this election period. Below is a fact check that we carried out to check the credibility and accuracy of several posts.

Social Media Posts:

A post circulated through social media platforms stating that it was a statement released by the National People’s Power (NPP). It contained the statement, “We are not racists or religious people just because a “Sangha Conference” was held. Under the government of the NPP, there is no difference in our policies, and no religion gets priority. We regard religion as the main reason why we have become a backward nation and keeping the state and the religion at a distance is our main policy”.

The Press release was stated as a post on the first official News1st Facebook page.

Facebook | Archived Link

It was circulated through Twitter as well.

Twitter | Archived Link

It was shared even through WhatsApp.

At the same time, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya said, “The Sangha Conference is not a work of the NPP but is a work of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The NPP would never adopt racism as its principal force. It was published on the official Facebook page of Sirasa News1st.

Facebook | Archived Link

Here’s a breakdown of how we checked the credibility of this news.

Fact Check (Investigating factual Information):

We checked whether these posts and statements were published on News1st's official Facebook page, but we couldn’t find any evidence.

It was also reported that they were not published in any of the mainstream media.

We inquired about this from one of its news managers and he confirmed that no such announcement has been published and also no news regarding Mrs. Harini Amarasuriya as well.

We also asked about this from several mainstream media, and they also confirmed that their organization did not receive any such news, though they were circulated through social media.

Media Unit of National People’s Power (NPP)

And we asked this from the media coordinator of the National People’s Power. The department also confirmed that no press release was issued by their end stating that “no religion will be given priority under our government” and that the news was false and that this was an edited and a fake announcement made to mislead people.

Dr. Harini Amarasuriya

Since we could not see any media report that Dr. Harini Amarasuriya mentioned, we drew attention to the above photo.

Accordingly, it is confirmed that the photo was taken on the day of the NPP Banking and Finance Women’s Forum on August 14^th, and it is a photo taken before the conference.

Also, we asked Ms. Harini about this, and she also mentioned that she never made such a statement and it is completely false.

Sangha Conference.

For the victory of the leader of the National People’s Force (NPP), the Presidential Candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake had a conference with the Jathika Bhikkhu Peramuna.

Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake mentioned that the section 9 of the Constitution states that the Republic of Sri Lanka gives priority to Buddhism, and there is a false statement being circulated through social media platforms.

He stated that no one in the committee for preparing a new constitution that existed during 2015- 2019 made any proposals to amend that section and that the section shown in section 9 of the constitution remains the same, and that he assures that in front of the Buddhists Theros. You can watch the video here.

Also read : දියවඩන නිලමේගේ හැසිරීම පිළිකුල් සහගත බවට හරිනි අමරසූරිය ප්‍රකාහ කළා ද?

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