Sri Lanka to heighten internet censorship

Labels: අන්තර්ජාල වාරණය

(July 17, 2009) The websites the Sri Lanka government accuses of 'slinging mud' at it will face a situation that they 'will be automatically shut down.'

Media spokesman on National Security Minister Keheliya Rambukwella made the warning as reported by the defense reporter of the state-owned Dinamina Sinhala daily. 

A team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) led by Deputy Inspector General Nandana Munasinghe has started identifying such websites using multiple technologies since yesterday according to the newspaper report.  

Lanka News Web, a website accused by the government politicians and the pro-government media of 'slinging mud at the government' cannot be accessed from Sri Lanka since July 11. However, the Minister of Information and Media Anura Priyadarshana Yapa denies any involvement of the government in such filtering. Pro-LTTE Tamilnet website is also blocked since years and the government does not admit the responsiblity of that act too.  

Sri Lanka Telecom, a company with 51% state stake is the major internet service provider in Sri Lanka. 

(In the map above, the countries in black are the most heavily censored nations regarding internet access. The countries in green maintain a surveillance; the countries in yellow have some sensorship while the blue countries have no censorship.)