SRI LANKA: Pro-Tamil Tigers website shut down
Updated
In Sri Lanka, the pro-Tamil Tigers website, TamilNet, has been blocked. The website is not accessible inside the country, and while the Sri Lankan government has denied involvement in the outage, one minister joked that he had failed to find hackers to do the job. If the government is behind the move, it will be the first time internet-based media in Sri Lanka has been targeted in such a way.
Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: Sunanda Deshaepriya, convenor, Free Media Movement
The Sri Lankan government says it is not responsible for shutting out Sri Lankan internet users from the news website, TamilNet. According to the website, which is still accessible outside of Sri Lanka, however, officials at Sri Lanka Telecom say they were instructed to block the pro-Tamil Tigers site. International press freedom organisation, Reporters Without Borders, has condemned the move saying the government must put a stop to the censorship and restore access to the site. And local organisation, Free Media Movement in Colombo says there is no doubt about who is behind it. Spokesman, Sunanda Deshaepriya.
SUNANDA: Government has not responded to any official enquiry on this but we are 100 per cent sure that government server has blocked TamilNet in Sri Lanka.
HILL: Free Media Movement's Mr Deshaepriya says the site, which has been blocked since Saturday, is part of an ongoing war against media freedom in Sri Lanka that has recently escalated.
SUNANDA: In the last 16 months we have seen 11 media workers and journalists killed in Sri Lanka. That is unprecedented in Sri Lankan history. Very few newspapers and news television channel that still have courage to try to report both sides but people from both sides don't get the other side of the news - that's the result and people cannot make informed judgement in this situation and journalists communities very much under threat.
HILL: Mr Deshaepriya says Sri Lanka has always allowed, and protected, a free press. It has no censorship laws and if the government is behind the blocking of the TamilNet website, they would be using powers they do not have. But media censorship, and oppression of journalists is part of the government's war on the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam, a group listed as terrorists by the Sri Lankan government as well as the United States, 25 EU countries, India and Australia. Mr Deshaepriya says a long history of a liberal, free press is being strangled.
SUNANDA: The government position has been - we are fighting a war on terror - if you are not with us you are with the Tigers. That was very clearly told by a number of government officials, that is the line they are trying to pursue.
HILL: Opinions and voices from the Tamil Tigers are no longer broadcast or published and journalists of Tamil-background have been targeted. It would be worse, says Mr Deshaepriya, if the Tamil Tigers were in charge as they do not believe in press freedom or dissenting opinions. He says, however, it is the government's responsibility to protect a diverse and open media. If the government is responsible of the blocking of TamilNet, it will have been the first internet news site targeted for censorship. Mr Deshaepriya says it is a sign that the government is becoming a lot less tolerant.
SUNANDA: TamilNet has been contradicting a number of important incidents the way the government reported. You know this is to send a message that critical journalists are not tolerated, it's kind of sending a message to the whole media community. That is very new in Sri Lanka.
