{"id":183908,"date":"2017-11-09T00:10:14","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T18:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=183908"},"modified":"2017-11-13T21:47:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T16:17:05","slug":"maithripala-declares-war-on-ravi-k-using-lankaenews-as-proxy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/maithripala-declares-war-on-ravi-k-using-lankaenews-as-proxy\/","title":{"rendered":"Maithripala Declares War On Ravi K Using Lankaenews As Proxy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Maithripala+Sirisena\">Maithripala Sirisena<\/a> has taken steps to block the news website\u00a0<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s2\">www.lankaenews.com<\/span>.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Another news website,\u00a0<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s2\">www.srilankamirror.com<\/span>, has claimed that the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) has issued a directive to all internet service providers operating in Sri Lanka to block lankaenews following a court order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">President Sirisena, speaking at events to mark the 2nd death anniversary of Ven Madoluwawe Sobitha Thero, referred to \u201ccrooks responsible for the Central Bank bond scam\u201d using certain websites operated out of the country to sling mud at him.\u00a0<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">In the meantime, Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Rajitha+Senaratne\">Rajitha Senaratne<\/a>, speaking at the Cabinet Press Briefing also referred to an unnamed website \u2018operated out of the country\u2019 attacking the President in a distasteful manner.\u00a0<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">\u201cI have told the President that if we caught a few such people and locked them up then media ethics would improve,\u201d Senaratne said.\u00a0<span class=\"m_8820943150826903009gmail-s1\"><strong><em>(By Renuka Jayasinghe)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmaithripalas%2Fvideos%2F10155641911996327%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560\" width=\"900\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">The reporting website,\u00a0<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s2\">www.srilankamirro<\/span><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s2\">r.c<\/span><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s2\">om<\/span>, claims that the Presidential Secretariat had directives to entities advertising in lankaenews to stop their ads forthwith.\u00a0<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">Lankaenews, in a post on their Facebook page, has acknowledged that the website has indeed been blocked by the TRC last afternoon.\u00a0<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">Lankaenews said: \u201cSubsequent to lankaenews breaking a story about the President and the Maharajah Organization working in cahoots to strike a deal with respect to a Russian ship, the Presidential Secretariat has directed our advertisers to stop advertising with us.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Not only did they stop advertising, they refused to pay for advertisements already published.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">\u201cIt was by moving to stop advertisements that the previous regime began its suppression of lankaenews.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Next, the CID stormed into our office, apprehended personnel and interrogated them.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>This happened 9-10 times a year.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Finally, the office and library were set on fire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">Interestingly, Rajitha Senaratne was a minister of the very same Rajapaksa Government that attacked lankaenews in this manner.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Immediately after Maithripala Sirisena became President, restrictions on access to lankaenews and other such websites were lifted.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Incidentally, the offices of lankaenews was set on fire the day the website carried a cartoon depicting then president Mahinda Rajapaksa as suffering from a sexually transmitted disease.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>It is this very website with whom relations have soured of late that was propped by the Yahapalana Government via advertisements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">Lankaenews was receiving ads worth approximately Rs 600,000 per month from Lotteries Board and Sri Lanka Telecom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-p1\"><span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-s1\">President Sirisena claimed that there were some individuals in the government violating good governance protocols.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>He specifically mentioned the Central Bank <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=bond+scam\">bond scam<\/a> and claimed that the attack on him by the unnamed website was orchestrated by the culprits.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>While many in the government are implicated in the bond scam, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ravi+Karunanayake\">Ravi Karunanayake<\/a> is the only individual who has had to take a hit \u2014 he was pressurized to resign.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>The Lotteries Board was one institution directly under him.<span class=\"m_2856036652827737183gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>As such it is reasonable to put together the pieces of the puzzle that Sirisena and Senaratne have disclosed; the unnamed hidden hand is none other than Ravi Karunanayake and the unnamed website is lankaenews.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":165002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ 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