The editor of an anti-government newspaper in Sri Lanka said on Friday she had been sacked after she resisted demands from the new owner to water down criticism of President Mahinda Rajapakse and his family.
"He (the new owner Asanga Seneviratne) said our articles were too slanderous of the president and the first family," Frederica Jansz said. "He has terminated my contract in an email to me."
Jansz took over the Sunday Leader after its founding editor Lasantha Wickrematunga was shot dead by unidentified gunmen while on his way to work in a suburb of Colombo in January 2009.
Wickrematunga started the paper with his brother Lal Wickrematunga 18 years ago, building it into one of the most vocal anti-establishment newspapers in the country.
Media rights groups accuse Sri Lanka's government of trying to silence dissenting voices in a country where 17 journalists and media workers have been killed in the past decade. No one has been brought to justice for the killings.
Lal Wickrematunga, the outgoing chairman of the Leader, told AFP that Jansz had been sacked because she had refused to show her articles to the new owner prior to publication.
There was no immediate comment from Seneviratne, a former Sri Lankan rugby skipper and businessman.
In July, Jansz publicly accused the president's brother Gotabhaya of using "most foul, lewd and disgusting language" towards her, when she tried to verify a report alleging irregularities in the flying of a puppy for his wife aboard a Sri Lankan aircraft.
Gotabhaya, who is also the defence secretary, is alleged to have said that "90 percent of the people in Sri Lanka wanted the editor of this newspaper dead", according to her report, which was promptly denied by the government.
An article written by Jansz was also at the heart of a court case against Sri Lanka's controversial former army chief Sarath Fonseka who had fallen out with the President over who should take credit for crushing Tamil rebels in 2009.
The ex-army chief was jailed for three years in November last year for remarks attributed to him in the Sunday Leader saying that Gotabhaya Rajapakse had ordered the killing of surrendering rebels.
President Rajapakse and his close family control key positions in the country and together they manage more than two thirds of the national budget.
His elder brother is the speaker of parliament, another younger brother is economic development minister and his eldest son is a member of parliament.