Sri Lanka Minister denies blocking TamilNet

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 June 2007, 10:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Minister of Information Anura Priyadarashana Yapa said Thursday during a Cabinet Press Briefing in Colombo that the Sri Lanka Government was not responsible for blocking TamilNet, and asked the journalists not to blame the Government for such incidents. The Minister was responding to a question by AFP Sri Lanka Bureau Chief, Amal Jayasinghe, regarding the blocking of the TamilNet website by Sri Lanka internet providers, parliamentary sources from Colombo said.

However, the Sri Lanka Telecom highly placed officials confirmed to the local media at Colombo that they have blocked the access to the TamilNet website under the instructions of Sri Lanka Government.

Several media watchdogs have accused the Sri Lanka Government for the infringement on media freedom, and mainstream international media have given publicity to the cyber censorship by the democratic government of Sri Lanka.

Further, several websites have provided information to the Sri Lanka internet users on how to use proxy websites to bypass the block.

Chronology:


External Links:

CPJ:		In Sri Lanka, the government silences a Tamil Web site
AFP:		Sri Lanka seeks hackers to down pro-Tiger website
IHT:		Rights group: Popular pro-rebel Web site banned by Sri Lanka
Hindu:		Lankan Govt. denies censorship despite blocking Tamilnet
Reuters:		Sri Lanka urged to stop censoring pro-Tiger Web site
RSF:		Sri Lanka : government censors Tamilnet by blocking access to website
BBC:		Popular Tamil website 'blocked'
AFP:		Sri Lanka under fire over Internet censorship