Sri Lanka minister targeted with fabricated news graphic
- Published on February 25, 2026 at 05:41
- 2 min read
- By Harshana SILVA, AFP Sri Lanka
Following the killing of a Sri Lankan lawyer and his wife in February 2026, social media users shared a fabricated news report that the island nation's security minister admitted the government is unable to protect lawyers. The television channel whose template was misused in the false posts denied publishing the graphic, while the minister separately said he has not issued such remarks.
"We can no longer guarantee the lives of the lawyers who appear for the underworld," reads Sinhala-language text on a news graphic shared February 16, 2026 on Facebook.
It includes the logo and URL of local broadcaster Independent Television Network (ITN), and attributes the remarks to Minister Ananda Wijepala whose picture is included in the post (archived link).
"Underworld figures are not the people of our country," reads the caption.
Similar posts surfaced on Facebook after lawyer Buddhika Mallawarachchi and his wife W.A. Nisansala were shot dead on February 13 in a suburb of the capital Colombo (archived link).
Local media organisation Adaderana, quoting the police, reported that an alleged underworld figure ordered the killings, and ten suspects had been arrested (archived link).
Members of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka staged a strike in response, as the government faced mounting pressure to address the wave of deadly shootings in the country (archived here and here).
But there were no official reports that Wijepala said the government is unable to protect lawyers.
A keyword search found a statement posted on his Facebook account on February 17 dismissing the rumours (archived link).
"I have not made any such statement and I categorically deny it," the post says.
A reverse image search on Google found the picture used in the fabricated graphic was originally shared on Wijepala's Facebook page on January 11, 2026 (archived link).
Hasini Ekanayake, the head of ITN News Digital Department also told AFP via WhatsApp on February 23: "ITN has not published or broadcast any report containing the quoted statement attributed to Minister Ananda Wijepala".
"We wish to categorically state that this is fake."
AFP has previously debunked other false posts stemming from fabricated news graphics.
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