{"id":124003,"date":"2014-05-03T00:11:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T18:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=124003"},"modified":"2015-01-15T02:33:14","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T21:03:14","slug":"ranil-demands-rajapaksa-unblock-web-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ranil-demands-rajapaksa-unblock-web-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranil Demands Rajapaksa Unblock Web Sites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blocking websites like Colombo Telegraph clearly shows the increasing authoritarian tendencies of the Rajapaksa regime, the leader of the opposition <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ranil+Wickremasinghe&amp;x=13&amp;y=2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/span><\/a> told ColomboTelegraph.<\/p>\n<p>Condemning Rajapaksa regime\u2019s move to block websites, the UNP leader Wickremesinghe said; \u201cThe degree of censorship in Sri Lanka has gone from bad to very grave.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_61439\" style=\"width: 269px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Ranil-Wickremesinghe.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-61439\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Ranil-Wickremesinghe.jpg\" alt=\"Ranil\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-61439\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ranil<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Speaking from the Center for International Studies at MIT, he said; &#8220;I will hold discussion with the party\u2019s parliamentary group on the issue and will discuss what action we can take\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today, the World Press Freedom day, I demand Rajapaksa regime to stops its attacks on freedom of expression \u2013 on social media, the broadcast and print media to respect People&#8217;s Right to Know&#8221;, he added.<\/p>\n<p>The Telecom Regulatory Commission has officially issued instructions to internet service providers to block Colombo Telegraph and other critical websites on its servers, with a warning that the companies are to maintain to customers that the inability to view the sites on the networks were merely &#8216;technical&#8217; problems.<\/p>\n<p>According to the annual index of media freedom, published on Wednesday by the US-based\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Freedom+House&amp;x=8&amp;y=5\">Freedom House<\/a><\/span>, Sri Lanka\u2019s score slipped by another 2 points, from 74 to 76, marking a dramatic decline of 20 points over the last decade.<\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka has slipped down the global rankings for freedom of the press as a result of increased harassment of both local and foreign journalists trying to cover protests and sensitive news stories, as well as attacks on printing and distribution channels for private media and blocks on web content, led to a more constricted space for independent news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":61439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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