Authorities in Sri Lanka have detained five mostly ethnic minority Tamil journalists, a media activist group said yesterday, days after Colombo came in for intense criticism over its rights record. Five journalists, all linked to a liberal news site, outreachsl.com, were taken in for questioning over the weekend while some have been detained under tough emergency laws, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said.
"We hope that due process will be followed regarding the arrested writers and journalists, " the FMM said, expressing its concern over the latest government crackdown against journalists.
FMM official Sunanda Deshapriya said his group's spokesman, Tamil journalist S. Sivakumar, had also been detained for 12 hours and later freed by the police Terrorist Investigation Division.
International media rights activists have described Sri Lanka as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists due to a worsening climate of violence and unofficial censorship.
Killings and attacks against journalists remained unsolved leading to fears that media freedom is being deliberately and violently suppressed through threats, abductions and attacks, a team of media activists said last year. Since August 2005, 11 media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka.
Ten of them were killed in government-controlled areas and no one has been brought to justice in connection with the deaths. Sri Lanka is pressing for a military victory over Tamil Tiger rebels and a series of tit-for-tat clashes have left heavy casualties on both
sides.
On Thursday the New York-based pressure group Human Rights Watch accused the island's government of being "one of the world's worst perpetrators of enforced disappearances, " and called for tough United Nations monitoring. The same day a team of top legal luminaries also announced they were pulling out of the war-torn nation because Colombo had failed to seriously investigate a string of high-profile rights cases, including the massacre of 17 local employees of a French charity.
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Media rights bodies condemn Sri Lanka net censorship
Sri Lanka's top media rights body has condemned a statement by a minister who made remarks about hacking a Tamil news website which was blocked by at least two of the country's top telecom firms, reportedly on government orders.
The Free Media Movement said Minister Keheliya Rambukwella's statement that he would love to hire hackers to use against Tamilnet, a pro-guerilla website at the centre of the controversy put at him cross purposes with the country's computer crimes bill.
Meanwhile the international media rights watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) also condemned the blocking of the internet site and called for it to be lifted.
"The government must put a stop to this censorship and restore access to the site at once," RSF said.
RSF said the site has often been accused of supporting Tamil nationalists. Its editor, Sivaram Dharmaratnam, was murdered on April 28, 2005.
The full statement is reproduced below: The Free Media Movement (FMM) unequivocally condemns the outrageous statement by Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, as reported by the BBC's Sinhala Service and by AFP today, that he would love to hire hackers to disable Tamilnet, but had not found anyone yet for the job.
Minister Rambukwella's statement is tantamount to Government sanctioned cyber-terrorism against websites that do not toe its line.
The reference to the use of hackers to shut down websites is a strategy that offensively transgresses the responsibility to protect fundamental rights of citizens, including the freedom of expression and the right to information, by a Government Minister.
The Minister's statement also puts him at cross purposes with the Computer Crimes Bill enacted in Sri Lanka earlier this year, holding him culpable under the law for attempting to hack into a website with the intent to cause disruption.
The FMM seeks urgent clarification from the Government as to whether Minister Rambukwella's comments are indicative of official Government policy to shutdown, disrupt or censor content and websites on the Internet.
If not, the FMM seeks a full retraction from the Minister and reiterates that the Government must immediately unblock access to Tamilnet in Sri Lanka.
Article Contribution : ZESTMedia
Members of the ZESTMedia list exchange news and views about the media in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan.
The Free Media Movement said Minister Keheliya Rambukwella's statement that he would love to hire hackers to use against Tamilnet, a pro-guerilla website at the centre of the controversy put at him cross purposes with the country's computer crimes bill.
Meanwhile the international media rights watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) also condemned the blocking of the internet site and called for it to be lifted.
"The government must put a stop to this censorship and restore access to the site at once," RSF said.
RSF said the site has often been accused of supporting Tamil nationalists. Its editor, Sivaram Dharmaratnam, was murdered on April 28, 2005.
The full statement is reproduced below: The Free Media Movement (FMM) unequivocally condemns the outrageous statement by Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, as reported by the BBC's Sinhala Service and by AFP today, that he would love to hire hackers to disable Tamilnet, but had not found anyone yet for the job.
Minister Rambukwella's statement is tantamount to Government sanctioned cyber-terrorism against websites that do not toe its line.
The reference to the use of hackers to shut down websites is a strategy that offensively transgresses the responsibility to protect fundamental rights of citizens, including the freedom of expression and the right to information, by a Government Minister.
The Minister's statement also puts him at cross purposes with the Computer Crimes Bill enacted in Sri Lanka earlier this year, holding him culpable under the law for attempting to hack into a website with the intent to cause disruption.
The FMM seeks urgent clarification from the Government as to whether Minister Rambukwella's comments are indicative of official Government policy to shutdown, disrupt or censor content and websites on the Internet.
If not, the FMM seeks a full retraction from the Minister and reiterates that the Government must immediately unblock access to Tamilnet in Sri Lanka.
Article Contribution : ZESTMedia
Members of the ZESTMedia list exchange news and views about the media in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan.
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