A BBC journalist has secured a £50,000 payout for being sacked after prioritising a story about Sri Lanka over the birth of Prince George. 
 
 Chandana Keerthi Bandara, 57, lost his job as a producer on a BBC Sri Lankan news service in August 2014 and subsequently sued the BBC for unfair dismissal and race discrimination. 
 
 The employment tribunal found that the dismissal of Mr Bandara, who had been a senior producer on the Sinhala Service since 2000 and worked at the BBC for a total of 18 years, was unfair but in no way discriminatory. 
 
 The journalist had been allocated to oversee the publishing of stories on 23 July 2013, the day after Prince George was born, but said he chose not to prioritise the royal birth story partially because it clashed with the 30th anniversary of Black July – a wave of anti-Tamil violence that led to thousands being killed in Sri Lanka. 
 
 According to The Telegraph, a tribunal was told Mr Bandara fought against management pressure to report on the story but finally gave in and the article was published online at 12.08pm. After disciplinary proceedings, he was found to have been guilty of gross misconduct and was given a final written warning. 
 
 He was sacked just over a year later on 15 August, 2014 after other allegations of misconduct were made, including making a derogatory reference to a fellow worker and shouting at others. 
 
 According to the paper, although the majority of these allegations were substantiated with evidence or partially proved, the tribunal ruled that the unfair final written warning dished out over the Prince George story played a significant role in the decision to dismiss him. In turn, the tribunal found the final written warning was too stringent a punishment for an employee with such a good record. 
 
 However, Mr Bandara did not win his claims of race discrimination. In the proceedings, he claimed he was unjustly targeted because of his strongly held convictions that the Tamil people had been persecuted by the Sinhala-dominant government. The majority of his team were said to be of Sinhalese and not Tamil origin. 
 
 A spokesperson for the BBC World Service told The Independent they were disappointed with the outcome of this unfair dismissal claim but could not specify why. 
 
 "The BBC takes disciplinary matters very seriously and we are disappointed with the outcome of this unfair dismissal claim," the spokesperson said. "We note that the tribunal reduced the compensation awarded to Mr Bandara by 75 per cent and we will review the full decision of the tribunal carefully when it is available." 

 He was sacked just over a year later on August 15, 2014 after further allegations about his behaviour were made. 
 
 Among several other allegations of misconduct, he was accused of making a derogatory reference to a colleague and shouting at others. 
 
 The majority of these allegations were either proved or partially proved, but the tribunal ruled that the unfair final written warning, given for the dispute over the royal story, played a large part in the dismissal decision. 
 
 Mr Bandara claimed he was unfairly targeted because of his views on the Tamil people being persecuted by the Sinhalese-dominated government of Sri Lanka. 
 
 A tribunal heard how Chandana, who has a Sinhalese father and Tamil mother, worked with a team who were mainly of Sinhalese heritage. 
 
 Mr Bandara was unsuccessful in his claims for race discrimination, but a tribunal found the final written warning was too severe a punishment, for an employee with such a good record, describing it as "manifestly inappropriate". 
 
 The tribunal said: 
 
 "On July 22nd the Duchess of Cambridge was admitted to hospital. "Prince George was born later that evening, but news of the birth was broken after the Sinhala Service had departed for the evening. "On the morning of July 23rd the claimant, still in charge, decided that he would not prioritise the royal birth story. " 
 
 He told us that was because the date was the 30th anniversary of Black July, a sombre time in Sri Lankan history. 
 
 "When Mr Dejan Radojevic [his boss] attended soon after that, he felt that failing to prioritise the royal birth was absolutely the wrong course of action." 
 
 Rejecting Bandara's race claim that he was targeted because of his support for Sri Lankan Tamils, the tribunal said: "Our conclusion is that we are not persuaded that the views expressed by the complainant constitute a philosophical belief attracting the status of a protected characteristic within the Equality Act." 
 
 In a hearing to determine whether he was unfairly dismissed at the Central London Employment Tribunal, Jude Shepherd, representing Mr Bandara, argued that the allegations which followed the producer's warning, were not enough to constitute a dismissal.
– Not everyone was swept up by Royal Baby fever back in 2013, but not everyone lost their job for ignoring the birth of Prince George, either. A little bit of satisfaction and about $65,000 now belongs to Chandana Keerthi Bandara, a former producer for the BBC's Sri Lankan news service who was fired after he opted to not cover the birth of Prince William and Kate Middleton's first child when he came to work the day after the blessed event, prioritizing instead coverage of the 30th anniversary of Sri Lanka's Black July. Told to publish something about the wee Windsor child, Bandara initially refused, then put something up about noon. That earned him disciplinary proceedings, a verdict of gross misconduct, and a final written warning, reports the Telegraph. When another allegation was made a year later, Bandara was sent packing after 18 years on the job. He sued the BBC for unfair dismissal and racial discrimination, and a tribunal has now found that that final written warning was unfair and contributed to his firing, though no racial discrimination occurred. "The BBC takes disciplinary matters very seriously and we are disappointed with the outcome of this unfair dismissal claim," a rep tells the Independent, which notes the rep "could not specify why" the BBC was disappointed. (Prince George is apparently a bit of a rascal anyway.)