groundviews » Sri Lanka blocks TamilNet

Sri Lanka blocks TamilNet

June 19, 2007 at 10:07 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Media, Peace and Conflict | by groundviews

Follow up to Tamilnet banned? - How to continue to access the site from Sri Lanka

Original story available from here.

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 June 2007, 15:32 GMT]

TamilNet has completed 10th year of its web publication on 7th June 2007. TamilNet is a globally based news agency, run by an independent group of persons, to cover news and views related especially to the North and East of Sri Lanka. TamilNet has earned its credibility for news reporting and has become an indispensable news source to opinion makers worldwide. Not surprisingly, the Government of Sri Lanka has thought of rewarding the TamilNet on its 10th anniversary by clandestinely blocking it to the public of Sri Lanka.

Readers from Sri Lanka have informed TamilNet that local internet service providers have indicated that the access block was implemented by directives from “higher authorities.”

Even though the Sri Lankan state has a history behind it for silencing the voice of the Tamil public from the time it burnt down the Eezhanaadu newspaper office in 1981 in Jaffna, this is the first time, after the advent of Internet, it has moved to block access to a transnational website such as TamilNet.

With this unprecedented move, Colombo has denied the public of Sri Lanka access to independent NorthEast news, development related views and diaspora opinion on Tamil affairs which are otherwise not covered by the local media.

The de facto climate of self-censorship that has already plagued local media in Sri Lanka has now culminated in mischievious infringement into the freedom of global media. The timing of the act, strangely coincides with the scheduled visit of the representatives of Reporters sans frontiÃ¨res (RSF) and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to Jaffna.

Sri Lanka is plunging into undeclared military dictatorship and shameless ethnic cleansing, with open preparedness to challenge all norms of the International Community.

The TamilNet wishes to place the issue to the conscience of the Global Community and to all those proclaimed guardians of Democracy, Human Rights and Freedom of Expression.

11,817 have read this this article so far. You may also find these articles interesting:

Tamilnet banned? - How to continue to access the site from Sri Lanka Reports received by Groundviews indicate that Tamilnet is inaccessible from many major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Sri Lanka. At the time of writing, the site is confirmed to be inaccessible from: SLT (ADSL and dial-up) Lankacom (leased line) Lankabell (dial-up) Suntel (dial-up) Only Tamilnet seems to be affected. There is a workaround. Click here to access all the content... groundviews, June 19, 2007
Cutting off telecoms in Sri Lanka redux… This from the FMM today: Internet facilities and 8,000 telephones cut off in Jaffna Peninsula The Free Media Movement (FMM) is deeply disturbed to learn that basic communications facilities to the Jaffna Peninsula have been blocked from 28th January 2007. Internet facilities and around 8,000 landline telephones of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) are dysfunctional to date. SLT,... foobar, January 30, 2007

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Asanga Welikala said,

June 19, 2007 @ 10:40 pm

There is no surprise at all that this government would move to trample on freedom of expression, the hallmark of civilised societies, given that it has made its intentions in respect of peace and democracy absolutely clear in both rhetoric and action.

That attempts to curb press freedom is ultimately self-defeating has been clear for several centuries; crude attempts to silence an internet based news source are thus not only without real effect but also very silly. Trying to tame the web through the favourite weapons of this government such as bans, demonstrates the utterly limited nature of its thinking, competence and worldview.

The only consolation of course is that this government’s worst enemy is itself. While there is no doubt things will get worse before they get better, and that the departure of this government may take longer than weeks or months, what is clear that the writing is on the wall. You cannot run governments in the 21st century, however obscure and strategically unimportant the country, in this way.

In the meanwhile, we can only ruminate as to how we managed to find the Rajapakse brothers among 19 million Sri Lankans, and put them in charge of a government.

N said,

June 19, 2007 @ 10:48 pm

“run by an independent group of persons” - that’s gotta be the joke of the year…almost as funny as the Daily News running stories on Mahinda mame being honoured for his human rights record…

Nirmanusan said,

June 20, 2007 @ 2:23 am

In this state of affairs I am remembering the quotes of Christopher Bigsby and Malcolm Bradbury:

âYou know what they say: if âGodâ had been a Liberal, we wouldn’t have had the ten commandments. We’d have had the ten suggestions.â So,â¦.

brownsuger said,

June 20, 2007 @ 7:24 am

They mentioned “run by independent group of persons” but forgot to mention about the “pro-LTTE” stance.

SH said,

June 20, 2007 @ 9:51 am

Just found these headlines in June 07 from Tamilnet reporting the LTTE getting a rap on the knuckles by human rights groups:

Amnesty calls for UN human rights monitors for Sri Lanka
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=22476

UN pressures LTTE to show progress on child rights issues
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=22469

No interview with Tamilselvan or other parties from the LTTE accusing White NGOs or “peaceniks” of being traitors etc.

William H... omg... censorship said,

June 20, 2007 @ 10:27 am

who cares if Tamil Net is Pro-LTTE?- it writes lies, damn lies and statistics - I don’t care-

who cares if the Daily News is a vapid, badly written government mouthpiece?- I don’t care

Who cares if alternate views aren’t going to be heard, that censorship is nonsense, that the war will still go on, that civilians will bare the brunt of atrocities and deaths? I DO… Praba and Mahinda certainly don’t

Defence Analyst said,

June 20, 2007 @ 11:40 am

âNâ right on that. It is indeed a joke to call TamilNet an independent media. They are buyers of LTTE in big time. But that is not the case here. This will lead us to ask few questions from ourselves. One is, is this violating the freedom of expression from the media point of you and the right to information from the citizensâ point of you? And the question number two is does the freedom of expression gives you the permission to tell all nonsense or bogus or what ever to the public using the media? (Both sides)

My opinion is buyers should be treated at the lowest possible manner irrespective of the party they are belongs to, because they are making people fool and TamilNet is one of those so as Govt. Medias.

Melvin Ally said,

June 21, 2007 @ 9:11 am

If Tamilnet is banned, then the Daily News should be banned as well.

Free media and freedom of information are fundamental aspects of a democratic society but sadly not so in Sri Lanka. Obviously the govt. thinks that we cannot make up our own minds of what is right and what is wrong and what is biased and what is not.

They would rather they spoon-feed us with the muck that is in the Daily News, defence.lk, news.lk and army.lk - a bunch of rubbish and their stench is as bad as Tamilnet.

Singam said,

June 22, 2007 @ 12:24 am

In this day and age blocking one website is nonsense. groundviews, tamilcanadian , SL or LTTE peace secretariat websites or BBC can copy the tamilnet news and post. Sara is right that there is an intellectual backruptcy not to speak of paucity of IT knowledge in the SL Admin. I think Mahinda Aiya has lost control over his siblings and Ministers.

Jayanta Wijeratne said,

June 22, 2007 @ 12:28 pm

Singam,I do agree with you….but it goes to show how scared THEY are that people will read another point of view….. especially about the war!!

buddhika thambugala said,

June 23, 2007 @ 5:52 pm

if government can’t tolerate tamilnet or any free media , then we can’t tolerate that government. [Editors note: deleted final sentence]

S said,

June 24, 2007 @ 1:16 pm

I don’t think this is the first time the govt. has tried to block Tamilnet, while I was in Sri Lanka in Decemeber, I couldn’t access the website for several days from several different computers. I spoke to a relatively informed person about it, and they said that there were attempts to block other websites too, such as TRO.

Also, I think it is a common misconception that everyone who has a pro-LTTE view IS the LTTE. From my research, Tamilnet isn’t funded directly by the LTTE (at least not at its creation), nor was it created by LTTE members. They have been critical to a tiny extent of the LTTE, I have heard of an incident where Tamilnet reporters have been sanctioned privately by the LTTE, but Tamilnet and the LTTE tend not admonish each other publically, as it is seen as weakening their position (and their entire cause) against the GoSL.

Personally, I don’t really blame the Tamilnet reporters for their huge bias. The NorthEast is dangerous, and even if you don’t want to, you have to take a side for your own protection or both sides will try and kill you.

Melvin Ally said,

June 25, 2007 @ 1:33 pm

Really S, do you really expect anyone to believe that Tamilnet is an ‘independent media website’ and not connected to the LTTE?

Please…

Ruwan said,

November 22, 2007 @ 6:14 pm

Could you expect media freedom to publish anything you feel correct in a country where there is a civil war? Just look how Musharaff has controled it in Pakistan.

Website of Tamil political party in Sri Lanka under investigation « ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) said,

April 6, 2008 @ 4:43 pm

[...] Of course, it’s interesting that the case has been made to the Attorney General’s Department at all since the Government has blocked access to the popular Tamil news website Tamilnet from Sri Lanka for close upon a year now, has openly called for hackers to be employed against websites it find inconvenientÂ and hasÂ arrestedÂ journalists behind other critical websites.Â [...]

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