Minnelle Ferdinandez hit by water cannon when covering IUSF protest

Al Jazeera journalist Minnelle Fernandez was hit by a water cannon while reporting the Inter University Students’ Federation march in Colombo on Thursday.The IUSF launched a protest march on Thursday to demand the release of activists detained during last year’s anti-government demonstrations.

The Police fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protesters at Wijerama Junction in Nugegoda, during which Al Jazeera journalist Minelle Fernandez was caught between the police water cannon fire and the demonstrators.

An Al Jazeera report said: Al Jazeera’s Minnelle Fernandez, reporting from the outskirts of the capital Colombo, said “volleys of tear gas canisters and water cannons” were fired on the students. She said the government was “going way over the top” in order to check the protests.

“University students have said that this kind of repression by the government is not going to stop them and silence them,” she said.

“They are saying the government’s campaign is to repress people and silence their voices, to stop the university movement which was involved in the anti-government movement we saw last year and led to a change in the government,” she added.

While Fernandez was live on air, she and the Al Jazeera cameraperson were also hit by water cannons.