In a call to Colombo Telegraph editor, Uvindu Kurukulasuriya last night, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Telecommunications, Mangala Samaraweera referring to the Colombo Telegraph story on blocking, expressed regret and promised to launch an immediate investigation.
Mangala Samaraweera -Minister of External Affairs
Samaraweera insisted that it was not the policy of the Government to block any website and said that an independent report as well as a report on server management will not only be submitted soon but that they will be made public.
As we stated in our research only the parts of the network that use the server r1.ns.stl.lk are affected by the blocking. The important fact here is that the DNS server remains configured to block the site and there is no means for us to find out which parts of the network are blocked until a proper investigation takes place.
It is our understanding that the blocking was implemented at the direction of the Telecom Regulatory Commission and/or the Minister. Under the provisions of the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Act, No. 25 of 1991, s. 69, “the Minister may, upon being satisfied of the above matter by Order made either generally and published in the Gazette or specially in writing in respect of any telecommunication service provided in any place in Sri Lanka or in any ship in the territorial waters of Sri Lanka or in any vehicle or aircraft in or over Sri Lanka or the territorial waters thereof.”
In the absence of such lawful order, we contend that the TRCSL has engaged in an act that is ultra vires. Colombo Telegraph request the Sri Lankan government authorities to examine the facts of the case and provide us with (a) a detailed explanation and (b) an assurance that such unlawful acts shall not be repeated.
Related stories;
Exposé: Srisena Brothers Continue Rajapaksa Policy Of Blocking Colombo Telegraph
Video: How SLT Blocking Colombo Telegraph At The CTO Building
Click here to read the history
Amarasiri / February 6, 2015
Mangala Samaraweera -Minister of External Affairs
RE: Mangala Expresses Regret Over Blocking Colombo Telegraph And Promises Full Report Soon
Thank you Sir.
Only Colombo Telegraph, Facebook, Twitter and Lanka Truth are there to know the Truth…
Still many people believe that the Sun goes around the Earth, Believe in Astrologers, Trees, Stones, Rocks, Statues. Tooth, etc. and only Colombo Telegraph, Facebook, Twitter and Lanka Truth are there to know the Truth… and to find the answer that is blowing in the wind.
By the way, does the Ex-President Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa still believe in Astrology and Astrologers?
Copernicus?
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Aia / February 6, 2015
A minister responding to a public query- this called responsive government. Thought CT would have taken up with the responsible Minister directly rather than blowing the siren right away. Surprising to see that People also have opened up their ears and eyes all of a sudden, only a while a ago, looking at daylight robbery, they were behaving as if nothing out of order.
Will take some times before undo every things that MR did. You are a real Champion MS, sort it.
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Jagath Fernando / February 6, 2015
Hope CT will not be blocked again and action will be taken against those responsible for blocking.
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Uthungan / February 6, 2015
Better still,when will CT be able to operate from Colombo freely without getting blocked,monitored or censored?
Surely that’s the day we must look forward to.
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Huz / February 6, 2015
Thank God Mangala Samaraweera contacted CT.
CT should have contacted Mangala Samaraweera before writing an article with a sensationalist headline that reads “Exposé: Srisena Brothers Continue Rajapaksa Policy Of Blocking Colombo Telegraph”.
Sensing a bit of Stockholm Syndrome on your part, now that the Rajapakse demons have been banished :D
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Matilda Ellepola / February 6, 2015
Folks,
Isnt this called the YahaPalanaya?
the subject minister calling a journo for remove the filtering done by the barbaric Rajapaksas?
Where is DJ Silva or Athal Sumane now?
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BBS Rep / February 6, 2015
I am heartened by the prompt attention of Mangala. I hope they will keep it up.
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Leelawathie / February 6, 2015
there is no reason them not to keep up. very same manner questions arrising on the minibudget – RK responded promptly without rejecting it as had been the key nature of the barbaric Regime of MR.
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crazyoldmansl / February 6, 2015
Now this is a very nice and crazy situation.
sections of the network using r1.ns.stl.lk are affected you say.
How can part of the network be affected and the rest not be affected?
Possibly certain servers managed by certain people are affected.
So you jump to the conclusion that the TRCL was responsible for illegally blocking sections of the network using r1.ns.stl.lk
Who had access to the equipment and IT know how required to do this? This should be fairly easy to track down.
In the process other forms of abuse where slt customers are being robbed of their download time and download speed may also come to light.
I personally think that it was the chairman himself who is responsible. You can see the guilt written all over his face. His track record needs to be investigated carefully. We need a tight vetting system for our public officers.
How about testing the death penalty on one of these rats???
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K.A Sumanasekera / February 6, 2015
How can they block CT, when LakaeNews is now freely available to the Elite, Anglicans and the Vellalas in Colombo.
But the most significant in our Taylor boy’s statement is the the word “any”‘
Elite, Anglicans, Vellalas and even SLMC supporters will be thrilled with the chance now, for switching on to Indian Tube, Arab Tube, British Tube and a myriad of others, in between reading LankaeNews.
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Snowden Edward Asange / February 6, 2015
Sumane… IF u are/were in SL before the elections, you’d know that CT had been blocked in SL.. People had to use proxy servers to hide the IP addresses to get access. GOAT too had issues regarding tracking ALL who used the internet to expose the MR regime and he was pissed off that he couldn’t get his hands on the people who exposed MR and his goons to the international media..
I remember reading a few articles written by Mangala and Ranil on CT and of course a few written by speech writer’s for MR, Gota and Namal..
Glad that finally we were able to kick their asses and get more freedom of speech, movement, expression and a whole lot more…
Why do u ALWAYS bring in the Anglicans and Vellala’s to ANY topic? Racist?
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Sahan / February 6, 2015
Hi All,
I’m using SLT connection most of the time and Airtel for some time, both networks are supporting to access CT, up to now.
We all need to know, SLT was under MR in previous regime, people in SLT are same except MS brother, I think MS’s brother don’t know much about technical, but can order to investigate if CT randomly disconnected. We all can hope on him, he will do.
MS clearly know that, this regime was build-up by thousand of hands and their scarification with high threads. But, it is very easy to demolish, if it is not fit for public.
And, people refuse MR government due to this kind of activity.
By the way, CT must take full investigated report on this even and publish, people should know who is behind this blocking activity, and I hope this regime never do this kind of work. Be aware, still people are there to damage the image of new Government.
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Yes_Sir / February 6, 2015
Will do Sir, hondamy Sir, immediately.
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K. C. John / February 8, 2015
A typical response by a sycophant during the Rajapakse regime!
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Wickramasiri / February 6, 2015
I doubt that SLT has kept CT blocked now. My feeling is that when blocked earlier, SLT introduced a bug via a software programme so that the user’s computer self-activates a blocking mechanism. When I log in to CT my computer gives a message that the site is unavailble. I am able to overcome this by merely re-loading.
Or else there must be some defect in the servers.
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Village Green Guy / February 6, 2015
WHY are the advocates of press freedom not raising hell about the future of Lake House, an institution that belongs to the people, not to the government of the day?
It’s a pity that each government since the reprehensible takeover of this citadel built by the Wijewardenes has misused it to serve the ulterior tanha of the clique elected to power.
Now, Maithri may have the genuine wisdom (panna) to see the problem as it really is,and hand over Lake House to a trust of the people, for the people, and run by the people.
Lake House could be transformed into the first people-powered news organization in the world to produce mindful journalism exemplifying news as a social good, not as a commodity as is done in the West.
News values used to determine what is news need revision in Asian countries. These values which emphasize women (sex), wampum (wealth) and wrongdoing (crime) must change. This means a change in journalism education and training as well.
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Priya / February 6, 2015
Democrasy is working finally in my motherland. Thank you Mr Samaraweera showing your decency and maturity.Hope this government will go from strength to strength.
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Dom / February 6, 2015
Rather than posting your argument here, I would suggest you to take legal action against Sirisena’s brother on his refusal to unblock CT.
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Ansar / February 6, 2015
Hi Sumane my friend,I am still waiting for an answer from you which I posed long time ago . Whether you came out of your mother’s womb or somewhere else.The more you write unrelated craps to the subject make me wonder whether while your creation was taking place whether the angel supervising your creation took a break while planting your brain.
Please answer for the sake of majority of the commentors. All reasonable human beings will definitely be perturbed and confused by your lack of understanding of the basic theme under discussion.
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Dev / February 6, 2015
Just be careful, this could all be a face saving measure given that they want to avoid bad publicity before the release of the UN report next month.
There is a old saying…rocking the baby and pinching him at the same time.
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Douglas / February 6, 2015
This is where the PEOPLE have to act. If anything is going wrong the people must come forward to “question” the authorities. If that is made a “FORCE” no Government or any Authority could resort to any type of “Authoritarian” rule.
Wickramasiri brought out a good point to ponder. I too experience that type of difficulties and some times for days the site cannot be accessed. This type of technical glitches could be introduced to a system and we think it is by some “Authority”. No there are many hackers out there and they know what to do.
Although, I did not want to express any comment on what the Election Commissioner said regarding the “delay” in releasing the results at a certain hour due to a “technical problem” of the “computer system” of the Colombo University; there were enough of reasons to believe that there would have been a some sort of “interference” from an “outside source”. So far no one has expressed any opinion on that point made by the Commissioner of Elections. This is only a “doubt” I had.
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Douglas / February 6, 2015
Sorry. I forgot to adduce any reason for my doubts. Here are those:
1. We knew that prior to the election a computer station was set up at Temple Trees and it was widely known an “Indian Computer Specialist” was hired to man it along with other local staff. What was that for and what happened there?
2. Also we knew that there was another such unit set up at a “Private Residence” on a rental basis in London Place. In fact, there were pictures of this house in public domain. This was visited by Mr. Palpita and another Professor from Moratuwa University. What was this “Unit” and what was going on there?
3. The another news, there was another team attached to Dialog who “supposed” to be doing some “Upgrading” work. But the internal staff attached to this institution publicly said there were no such “Upgradings” done. So what were this “Foreign Team” doing there?
That is how my “doubts” arose. Worth looking into these along with that “Complaint” of Minister Mr. Samaraweera to the Police on the happenings of the “early hours” before the dawn of the next day of elections ending. Food for thought.
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Plato. / February 6, 2015
Foreign Affairs and Telecommunications is an unusual mix up of Portfolios! Anyway,the Minister has been responsive,we should be thankful!
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Mallaiyuran / February 6, 2015
CT picked up on a real cause.
New Royal Government’s intention is to show the West that they are relaxed everything. As far as many are concerned they are ignored more than the Old Royal Government.
The stoppage of Chinese projects was a dupe to get back the Fish Export. West put a hold mainly because Chinese ships are plundering the sea resources(, while TN Tamil fishers even bing shot for crossing.) That is an open secret West shut their market when Lanka fish with China Ships and sell it to West. Now, after West refused lift the ban, all the Chinese all projects are going on other than Northern Hight. Because Sampanthan and Sumanthiran are struggling to get a decent Minister post than the Paper Boy Minster job earlier offered, they are not going to have guts to talk about that.
But CT did not allow that type of game. If the Media are allowed to operate freely, Mangala have to have investigated and punish the officials concerned publicly. If the Media Ministry had given orders to open up, technical matters are to official and who can not figure it out of how to do has to leave. If somebody is not punished in court of law, it all past old game.
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Francis / February 8, 2015
There is no doubt that S. V. Kirubaharan’s article, “Slandering originated by the Ministry of External Affairs of Sri Lanka”, made Mangala Samaraweera to call the Editor of the CT.
Otherwise now almost a month, why Mangala Samaraweera was silent blocking the CT?
Hope CT wont change its policy b’cause Mangala Samaraweera has given them a phone. These all political dramas.
CT continue you independent reporting:
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Ranil Wijeyesekera / July 24, 2015
There a many who block websites and blame it on the government. There is going to be cyber attacks to create panic. There will be attempts to sabtoge media institutions. They know that is the only way to win.
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