The Lanka govt said it would like to hire hackers to dismantle a pro-Tamil Tiger website, as media groups said access to the site was already blocked.
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's government said on Wednesday it would like to hire hackers to dismantle a pro-Tamil Tiger website, as media groups said access to the site was already blocked.
Tamilnet.com has been blocked for several days on the "advice" of the government, local rights group the Free Media Movement (FMM) said. A Sri Lanka Telecom official confirmed the site was being filtered.
When asked about the decision, the government's spokesman insisted he was unaware of the measure -- but said authorities should expand their arsenal in the long-running ethnic conflict.
"I do not know, but I would love to hire some hackers," Keheliya Rambukwella said, while adding that he had no access to people who could do the job.
London-based Tamilnet.com, which publishes news and opinion about the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, confirmed its site was blocked by Sri Lanka Telecom -- the war-torn country's main Internet service provider.
"The de facto climate of self-censorship that has already plagued local media in Sri Lanka has now culminated in mischievous infringement into the freedom of global media," Tamilnet.com said.
The government owns just under 50 per cent of Sri Lanka Telecom, which is run by NTT of Japan.
The Sri Lanka-based FMM said it was "deeply disturbed" over what it said was yet another attack on media freedom.
"This is a significant turn in the erosion of media freedom in Sri Lanka and clearly demonstrates the extent to which media is censored," the media group said.
Some Internet service providers, who have their main offices abroad, still allow access to the website, which is an influential source of Tamil views on the island's separatist conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives in 35 years.
The censorship move also coincides with a visit to Sri Lanka by a group of international media rights activists investigating widespread reports of increased attacks on and intimidation of the local media.
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