{"id":78085,"date":"2018-06-05T22:58:04","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T04:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=78085"},"modified":"2018-06-05T14:34:48","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T21:34:48","slug":"sri-lanka-president-shuts-tv-network-linked-to-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/06\/05\/sri-lanka-president-shuts-tv-network-linked-to-pm\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka President shuts TV network linked to PM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Mail on line (UK)<\/em><\/h2>\n
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A television network owned by the family of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was suspended by the island’s telecom regulator Tuesday<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A television network owned by the family of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was suspended by the island’s telecom regulator Tuesday, worsening a power struggle in the fractious ruling coalition.<\/p>\n

The closure of Telshan Network comes days after the station criticised President Maithripala Sirisena, who promised to end an era of draconian restrictions on the country’s media.<\/p>\n

Sirisena, who rules in an unsteady coalition with Wickremesinghe, has specific oversight of the telecom regulator and the decision has aggravated frictions between the men.<\/p>\n

The network, owned by Wickremesinghe’s eldest brother, was shut after the regulator accused its owners of defaulting on licence fees.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The network has denied the allegations, insisting it has paid its dues.<\/p>\n

Wickremesinghe’s allies from his United National Party — which backed Sirisena to election victory in 2015 — protested the decision in parliament.<\/p>\n

“This is not something that we can accept. We are looking into this,” said media minister Mangala Samaraweera, who said he was kept in the dark about the decision.<\/p>\n

The closure is regarded as the first act of censorship of a broadcaster by Sirisena.<\/p>\n

In November he blocked Sri Lankans from being able to access the London-based Lanka E News website after it published an expose alleging graft in his office.<\/p>\n

Soon after being elected, Sirisena had lifted the internet censorship and media restrictions used freely by his predecessor, strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse.<\/p>\n

Some 17 journalists and media employees were killed in Sri Lanka during Rajapakse’s regime, which also blocked pro-opposition websites.<\/p>\n

Sirisena’s commanding position has waned as ties with his erstwhile ally have soured. The president has accused Wickremesinghe’s party of corruption, while the UNP says Sirisena has obstructed reforms.<\/p>\n

The gulf between the leaders has widened since their coalition was thumped in local elections in February, and hit a new low in April when Sirisena loyalists unsuccessfully sought to oust Wickremesinghe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Mail on line (UK) A television network owned by the family of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was suspended by the island’s telecom regulator Tuesday A television network owned by the family of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was suspended by the island’s telecom regulator Tuesday, worsening a power struggle in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-sirisena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}