"Near perfect" interview that never aired

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 March 2008, 14:52 GMT]
An interview recorded by the popular 'Hard Talk' show in BBC channel-24 with Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal related to Sri Lanka’s 60th Independence Anniversary has not aired yet, media reports from Colombo said. Colombo weekly Sunday Island spurned as unbelivable reported BBC response that the tapes had been accidently erased.

Past record of Sri Lanka politicians, Chandrika Kumaratunge, Lakshman Kadirgamar, and lately, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, indicates Sri Lanka's elite politicians have had a difficult time dealing with hard questions from Hardtalk interviewers.

"Bell Pottinger, Sri Lanka’s PR consultants in Britain, had been told that the [Cabraal] tapes had been accidentally erased, an explanation widely received with more than the usual pinch of salt," Colombo daily Island reported.

Cabraal "prepared hard for the event consulting with professionals overseas on long international calls, rehearsing through mock interviews and fine tuning his act to near perfection," Island said.

"It is pure speculation, and very much unlikely, that Cabraal would have been able to reverse the dismal past record of our politicians' encounters with the British show," a economic analyst in Colombo said.

Related Articles:
17.03.07   Rights questions bedevil Bogollagama UK, US visit
23.03.05   JVP will never quit UPFA government, Kadirgamar assures to B..
01.11.01   Tough time on Hard Talk


External Links:

Island:		Cabraal’s hard work erased by ‘Hard Talk’
BBC:		HARDtalk interview with Rohitha Bogollagama