The International Federation of Journalists
(IFJ) joins its Sri Lankan affiliates in condemning the continued blocking of
the news portal Lanka-e-News by internet service providers in Sri Lanka since
October 18.
According to information received from IFJ
affiliate the Free Media Movement (FMM), two major internet service providers
in Sri Lanka, the government-owned Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and the privately
owned Dialog Axiata PLC, have blocked access to the website. A smaller
service provider Mobitel, which is partly owned by SLT, has also reportedly started
blocking the website.
The website continues to be available through
relatively smaller internet service providers in Sri Lanka and is fully accessible
from abroad.
The FMM has in a statement put this latest
act of suppressing access to the news portal in a clear sequence of vindictive
actions by the Government of Sri Lanka or political agents acting on its
behalf. This is a sequence that includes the disappearance of Prageeth
Eknaligoda, a cartoonist and columnist for Lanka-e-News in January 2010,
the torching of its office premises in January 2011 and the arrest of its news editor in April.
The website has since then been operating
from a location outside Sri Lanka.
According to an explanation posted
by Lanka-e-News, the decision to block access to the site does not come on judicial
or regulatory grounds. The Sri Lanka Telecom Regulatory Commission (SLTRC) has
said that it is not in any way responsible for blocking the website, and no judicial
body has been reported to have requested an injunction against it.
The FMM reports that similar arbitrary actions
have in the past been taken against two other news portals, LankaNewsWeb and
the Sri Lanka Guardian. Award-winning citizen journalism website Groundviews,
and its Sinhala-language counterpart Vikalpa were temporarily blocked by SLT on
June 20.
“The IFJ fully supports our Sri Lankan
affiliates’ mobilisation of public opinion against this vindictive action,
which effectively denies Sri Lankans access to an important source of
information,” IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said.
“The Government of Sri Lanka and agencies such
as the SLTRC must investigate and clarify the role of state authorities in the
blockage of Lanka-e-News as a matter of priority.”
For
further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific
on +612 9333 0919
The IFJ
represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries
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