Sri Lankan defence minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa reportedly verbally abused Sunday Leader editor Frederica Jansz during a telephone interview last week. Jansz had asked the minister if he was aware that an aircraft scheduled to fly to Zurich was to be changed to accommodate a personal friend. During the conversation Rajapaksa told Jansz people “will kill you — you dirty fucking shit journalist”, and threatened to sue the newspaper if they ran the story. The Sunday Leader won the Index/Guardian Freedom of Expression award for journalism in 2009.