CID withdraws summons issued on BBC Journalist

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has withdrawn a summons issued to BBC journalist Azzam Ameen to appear before it to make a statement over a tweet. 

"I was informed by the Police via phone and through a letter this morning that it is not necessary for me to visit the CID. They regretted any inconvenience. I am grateful to those who expressed their support to me in many ways on this issue," Mr Ameen tweeted this morning. 

Mr Ameen was asked to appear before the CID after he retweeted a tweet sent out by the Presidential Media Division's (PMD) official twitter account in response to a tweet from the official twitter account of President Maithripala Sirisena. In reply to a tweet from the President's account that his Government intends to bring many more Acts to strengthen democracy, the twitter account PMD News tweeted "You are a wonderful speaker. But how do you ensure they turn into action. Show by doing!" 

The BBC journalist had retweeted the tweet pointing out that the advice was being given to the President from the official twitter account of his own media division. The PMD News tweet was subsequently taken down, with PMD News tweeting a clarification claiming that for a brief moment, its twitter account had been "compromised" and that it was investigating the matter. 

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