Sri Lanka expels British Channel 4 employee for 'harming nation's reputation'

Colombo, June 7 (ANI): The Sri Lankan government has reportedly expelled a senior official from the UK-based Channel 4 after a report said the country's armed forces may have committed war crimes.

Stuart Cosgrove and his wife Shirani Sabaratnam were placed on a 'blacklist', after Channel 4 News made the 'anti-government' remarks.

Cosgrove's wife was refused a visa and turned back from the airport, The BBC reports.

The Sri Lankan Government said Cosgrove , Channel 4's head of diversity, was forced to leave the country shortly after he arrived.

The official in charge of immigration said that Cosgrove's expulsion 'was not a deportation', but added that he had simply been 'instructed to leave'.

When asked why they had been blacklisted, the immigration official said that 'they are from Channel 4 , which without reason has harmed Sri Lanka's reputation.'

He further said that Cosgrove and his wife, who is of Sri Lankan Tamil origin, were on a watchlist of people not wanted in Sri Lanka. (ANI)