According to reports the office of a well-known online daily newspaper based in Colombo, Sri Lanka is currently being raided. The raid is being conducted by dozens of security officers of the Ministry of Defense. According to a source quoted in the Sri Lanka Guardian, the security officers entered the offices showing a search warrant but are preventing people inside the premises from leaving and also preventing anyone outside from entering.
It is also report that the editor of this paper Ruwan Ferdinand’s house is also being surrounded by security officers at the same time.
Attacks on online newspapers and websites have been going on for several months now and several online publications have been banned in Sri Lanka. Sophisticated technology is being used to keep to maintain the ban and to control all internet publications.
Earlier the Sri Lanka Mirror was banned along with others but after a court case it was allowed to operate. Now suddenly it has been raided.
Regarding the ongoing suppression of web publications we reproduce a forwarded statement published earlier.
Last week the president of the Federation of University Teachers’ Unions, Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri, complained that some persons saying that they were from the Ministry of Defense visited his neighbourhood and inquired after his whereabouts.
The extent to which the Ministry of Defence is interfering into the liberties of persons in Sri Lanka is reflected in the statement we issued today.
