Sri Lanka Under Fire Over Internet Censorship

Via Middle East Times -

COLOMBO -- Media rights groups attacked Sri Lanka's government Thursday for blocking domestic access to a Web site favoring the Tamil Tiger rebels and for saying that it would like hackers to disable the site.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that Colombo should immediately unblock the Tamilnet.com Web site.

"Sri Lanka's Internet service providers have been blocking access to the Web site on the government's orders since June 15," RSF said. "The government must put a stop to this censorship and restore access to the site at once."

A local rights group, the Free Media Movement (FMM), also criticized government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella over comments in which he said that he would "love" to hire hackers to pull down Tamilnet.

The FMM said that Rambukwella's statement was "tantamount to government sanctioned cyber-terrorism against Web sites that do not toe its line."

"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 Web sites on the Internet."

But Sri Lanka's media minister Anura Yapa insisted that his ministry had nothing to do with preventing users of Sri Lanka Telecom, the country's main Internet service provider, accessing Tamilnet.

"It is unreasonable to level charges against the government," Yapa told reporters in Colombo. "We have nothing to do with this."