Sandun Arosha Fernando has been appointed as head of RaajjeTV Colombo Bureau.

He was appointed to the position on Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This is the first time a bureau of a local station had been established outside of the Maldives.

Speaking after the appointment, Sandun said that Sri Lanka is home to many Maldivians and vice versa and that it was important that Maldivians received the most up to date details on issues of importance. Therefore, he assured that with this change, such reports will be brought in from Sri Lanka.

Speaking to Raajje.mv about the appointment, the channel’s Managing Director Ahmed Saleem said that this was an impressive feat for the channel and the mandate of providing news first to the public.

“RaajjeTV aims to bring the freshest news from Sri Lanka, as there is a large population of Maldivians in Sri Lanka and most of the embassies and missions of foreign nations are in Sri Lanka. Appointing an energetic youth like Sandun is one step in achieving this,” Saleem said.

Sandun was the recipient of the Best Journalist Award 2015 in Sri Lanka. He had been working in Sri Lanka’s Hiru News.