The President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Rajiv Amarasuriya, says he was “surprised and disappointed” by what he described as the distortion and misrepresentation of views expressed by speakers at the association’s public forum on the proposed constitutional amendment to extend the retirement age of judges.In a statement, Amarasuriya said the BASL public forum on the association’s position regarding the proposed amendment to extend the retirement age of judges, including those serving on the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, was successfully held yesterday.

He said the forum featured several distinguished legal experts and academics who, according to the BASL, spoke with one voice in opposing the proposed amendment.However, Amarasuriya said he was “surprised and disappointed” to see some sections of the media “utterly distorting and misrepresenting” the stated positions of the resource persons.“In my understanding and view, the responsibility of the media, especially on matters of national importance such as this, must be to project non-partisan views and not to pick parts of speeches and recklessly distort their entire context,” he said.The forum featured speakers including Steven Thiru, Yap Teong Liang, Savitri Goonesekere, Rohan Edrisinha, Deepika Udagama, M. A. Sumanthiran, Srinath Perera, Anura Meddegoda, Geoffrey Alagaratnam and senior journalist K. W. Janaranjana