Rajapakse government continues its witch hunt against media and dissenting voices

Saturday, June 30, 2012 » 07:50pm: Sri Lankan police have sealed off an office that runs independent and pro-opposition news

websites, arrested nine workers and seized computers and documents, says the government and a media rights group in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists.

A government statement said that ‘police officers, acting on a court order, searched and sealed off the office’ on Friday and that the ‘websites had published erroneous information about people recognised in society’ and had ‘tarnished Sri Lanka’s image.’

An opposition lawmaker, Mangala Samaraweera, said the two websites the office operated were the independent www.srilankamirror.com and www.srilankaxnews.com, which belongs to the opposition United National Party.

Friday’s police action clearly shows that ‘the government has not stopped its campaign to harass and intimidate the independent media institutions and journalists in Sri Lanka,’ said Gnanasiri Kottigoda, president of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, a local media rights group.

More than a dozen police officers surrounded the office in Kotte, on the outskirts of the capital, Colombo, and searched the premises for about three hours Friday, said Kottigoda and an eyewitness who asked not to be named.

They seized computers and documents and drove the nine workers, including the editor of one of the websites, away in police vehicles, both said.

The government statement said the office was used to enter false information to the internet and that the investigation was ongoing.

However, Samaraweera said the move was part of the government’s ‘witch hunt against the free media’ and accused the government of trying to suppress ‘dissenting voices.’

He said his party’s website, srilankaxnews.com, had exposed corruption and other wrongdoings of the government, triggering Friday’s raid.

Bigpond.com 

 

 

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