Websites planning to go to courts over blocking on election day

By Jayashika Padmasiri

In an unprecedented move ,websites Sri Lanka Guardian, Lankanewsweb and LankaeNews were blocked on election day. Employees confirmed this while the government claimed otherwise.
January 26th was a much awaited day for Sri Lankans. However, as the day dawned many controversies and rumours got off the ground regarding the two main contenders and even the media. While all this was happening, news that access to independent news websites Lankaenews, Lankanewsweb, Infolanka and Sri Lanka Guardian have been blocked by the country’s main Internet Service Provider caused a controversy among the public.

Legal action

We spoke to the editor of Lankaenews web, Sandaruwan Senadeera. Lankanews web won the award for the best website last year.
“We are planning to take legal action because on January 26 our website was blocked from 10.00 am onwards. However, we lodged a complaint with the Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake who called upon the SLT chairman to release the websites. The following day, our domain was hacked which prevented people from overseas from viewing the site. However, now it is functioning.”
Senadeera added that 85% of their website viewers are Sri Lankans and that this action had caused them immense disservice during the period that it was blocked. The Lankaenews team plans to take legal action soon against this injustice.
Meanwhile, apart from blocking the website , Lankaenews journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, had also gone missing from the day before the election, 25 January.
It is reported that Eknaligoda, who writes political analyses for the Lankaenews website, had left work at about 9 p.m. but failed to arrive at his home or contact any family members or friends afterwards. It is also reported that his wife has complained about his disappearance to the police stations in the Homagama and Rajagiriya-Welikada districts, but so far no action has been taken. Eknaligoda had been previously kidnapped for a few hours on 3 August and released by the abductors.
Another website which was blocked on polling day was Sri Lanka Guardian. LAKBIMAnEWS contacted the Editor of Sri Lanka Guardian Nilantha Ilangamuwa who confirmed that their website was blocked on election day and said they had released a statement on the same day regarding the matter.
Another statement referred to the blocking of Infolanka: “The blocking of the Infolanka website came as a shock, as Infolanka only facilitates reproduction of news and views published in other websites.
The Infolanka website had earned the reputation for publishing news and views in order to reflect fair coverage of what is reported worldwide about Sri Lanka.

Blocked

Lanka e- news stated that ‘two journalists from www.lankaenews.com have complained to the elections commissioner that Sri Lanka Telecom had blocked their server and they were unable to upload any news’. When LAKBIMAnEWS contacted Muditha Abhayagunawar-dhana of Infolanka he said the website was blocked for more than a day without any warning and there was no explanation afterwards. Now the webpage is functioning. We contacted the Chairman of the Working Journalists Association, Lasantha Ruhunage: “The government has made it difficult for employees of Lankaenews web page to upload any of their news items. This is only preventing the public the right of information, which is not democracy.”
Ruhunage added that nothing is being done by the law about these media abuses, and instead the government is blaming the media saying it wastarnishing the image of the government.
When we contacted media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena and questioned him, he denied the charges saying that the media ministry had nothing to do with what happened to those websites on election day.