Sri Lanka's Killing Fields elicited reactions from foreign governments, international human rights groups, and various public figures.

In November 2011 Channel 4 announced that it had commissioned a follow-up film Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished from ITN Productions with new evidence concerning the final days of the conflict, broadcast in March 2012.

started emerging showing what appeared to gross violations of international and humanitarian law by both the Sri Lankan military and the rebel group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

In August 2009 Channel 4 News broadcast video showing naked and blindfolded victims being executed by Sri Lankan soldiers.

[5] On 3 June 2011 Channel 4 premièred a special hour-long investigation into the final weeks of the civil war titled Sri Lanka's Killing Fields at the 17th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

[7][8] In an unusual move Channel 4 waived its international copyright, allowing viewers from outside the UK to view the documentary on its on-demand service and via YouTube.

[13][14][15] Three cross-party New Zealand MPs (Jackie Blue, Keith Locke and Maryan Street) jointly screened the documentary at the Beehive Theatrette in Wellington on 16 August 2011 to an audience of parliamentarians and political activists.

[16][17] Human Rights Watch and three cross-party Canadian MPs (Patrick Brown, John McKay and Rathika Sitsabaiesan) jointly screened the documentary at the La Promenade Building, Ottawa on 28 September 2011.

[21][22][23] The documentary featured interviews with Benjamin Dix, a British UN worker based in Kilinochchi; Gordon Weiss, the UN's official spokesman in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the civil war; William Schabas, international human rights lawyer and academic; Vany Kumar, a British Tamil who had been trapped in the conflict zone; Steve Crawshaw of Amnesty International; a number of civilians who had been trapped in the conflict zone; and Sinhalese critics of the government.

[1] By removing the aid agency from the Tamil Tiger areas, there were no longer any international witnesses to the Sri Lankan military's actions, charged Weiss.

After the UN had withdrawn, the Sri Lankan military launched a massive offensive into the Tamil Tiger-held areas and captured Kilinochchi in January 2009.

[1] The documentary featured an interview with a Sinhalese critic of the government who claimed to have a collection of photographs of summary executions and killings of those who surrendered by the Sri Lankan military.

"[1] The documentary showed a number of video clips filmed by Sri Lankan soldiers on mobile phones, most of which were previously unaired.

In the first clip, which was originally broadcast on Channel 4 News on 25 August 2009, armed soldiers are seen abusing naked, blindfolded men (believed to be Tamil Tiger prisoners) with hands tied behind their backs.

[4] In the second clip two men and a woman in civilian clothes but believed to be Tamil Tiger prisoners are shown blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs and sitting on the ground.

[1] In another clip soldiers are shown dragging and dumping dead naked bodies of women, many of which appear to have been abused, onto the back of a truck.

[24][25] The RTS described the "meticulous investigative documentary" as "a unique, disturbing and convincing account of what was supposed to be a war carried out well away from public view".

[27][28] Shyam Tekwani, an expert in terrorism and media at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies who has extensively covered the Sri Lankan conflict, compared the "tone and tenor" of the documentary to that of productions by the LTTE's propaganda wing, and opined that "Clearly an effort to sensationalise and shock with carefully selected and edited footage, the documentary weakens its case and invites an investigation into its own credibility and accountability to journalistic norms.

Shyam Tekwani's views expressed were those of the author and did not necessarily represent the official position of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies which is part of the United States Department of Defense.

A. Gill, reviewing the documentary in The Sunday Times, described the footage shown as "unattributed and uncorroborated" and wrote, "Not a second of this has been shot by Channel 4; none of the eyewitness accounts comes from journalists".

[30][31] In a technical analysis of the mobile phone footage on behalf of Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, E. A. Yfantis, a professor of computer science at University of Nevada-Las Vegas specialising in computer graphics and image processing, stated that "based on mathematical analysis, blood in the 3GP videos is not real blood.

[32] He called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to re-investigate alleged war crimes and examine whether the UNHRC's original findings [resolution A/HRC/S-11/L.1/Rev.2 passed on 27 May 2009] "can any longer be regarded as well founded".

[33] Asked to comment on the documentary, the official spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs stated on 15 July 2011 "Our focus is on the welfare and the well being of the Tamil- speaking minorities of Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka...The sequence of events during the last days of the conflict is unclear.

"[35][36][37] British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt issued a statement on 15 June 2011 in which he expressed shock at horrific scenes in the documentary.

They also are powerful evidence of the need for an independent investigation to hold those responsible accountable for the crimes...If the Sri Lankan government is unable or unwilling to act, then the international community must respond in its place".

[46] Dismissing the complaints of impartiality, offensiveness, and misleading material, Ofcom concluded that "overall, Channel 4 preserved due impartiality in its examination of the Sri Lankan Government's actions...the audience was not materially misled...the images included in this programme, whilst brutal and shocking, would not have exceeded the expectations of the audience for this Channel 4 documentary scheduled well after the watershed with very clear warnings about the nature of the content".

[4][51] Kandanam Jegadishwaram (Nandavanam Jagatheeswaram), a British national of Tamil origin, was arrested on 4 July 2011 for allegedly supplying Channel 4 with video which was used in the documentary.

Jegadishwaram was brought before Colombo Magistrate's Court on 8 July 2011 where the Criminal Investigation Department accused him of causing "disrepute to the country and the army by providing alleged videos to the Channel 4 television".

[55] In August 2011, Indian TV channel Headlines Today broadcast a two-part documentary titled Inside Sri Lanka's Killing Fields.

[58] In November 2011, Channel 4 announced that it had commissioned a follow-up film Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished from ITN Productions with new evidence concerning the final days of the conflict.