{"id":95796,"date":"2019-11-29T17:47:47","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T00:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95796"},"modified":"2019-11-29T17:47:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T00:47:47","slug":"let-us-condemn-the-media-suppression-against-web-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/29\/let-us-condemn-the-media-suppression-against-web-journalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Let us condemn the media suppression against web journalists !"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Movement for Web Journalists <\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The National Movement for Web Journalists\nprotests the attempt to suppress the media and journalists after the new\ngovernment was elected who acted in opposition to the incumbent President\nGotabhaya Rajapakse during the presidential election which ended shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the victory of the new president on\nNovember 17, 2019, many websites and journalists in Sri Lanka have been\nsubjected to direct and indirect repression. As a result journalists and web\nsite editors campaigning for the victory of Sajith Premadasa during the\nelection and who were against the previous government have been called to the\nCID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhanushka Sanjaya, who is a news announcer\nfor the “The Leader” internet news service was summoned to the CID\nand questioned for eight hours. Meantime a police team of 14 police officers\nhas broken into the News Hub web office belonged to the former media minister\nPatali Champika Ranawaka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today 28th the editor of the Voicetube.lk\nwebsite, Ms. Thushara Vitharana has been summoned to the CID and questioned for\nabout 6 hours. Reports confirm that many more web reporters will be called\nto the CID in the future. Few days ago a Swiss embassy staff attached to\nthe visa section was abducted and questioned on her way home. These incidents\nclearly show that state repression has started again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 As an organization that advocates\nfor the freedom of the press, the right to information and freedom of\nexpression, we would like to say that this media repression is not appropriate\nfor a society that protects democracy and human rights. We believe that any\ncivilized society should have the right to alternative voices and fair\ncriticism, and that it would create an independent society that would uphold\nthe rule of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, all citizens of Sri Lanka\nshould have the right to free speech and expression, as guaranteed by Article\n14 (1) (a) of the fundamental rights chapter of the second republic\nconstitution of Sri Lanka 1978 and Article 19 of the Convention on Civil and\nPolitical Rights. We believe that it is the responsibility of every ruler to\nprotect and balance the constitution which has assigned powers to the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

executive, legislative and judiciary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, we believe the new President\nGotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the new government\nwould stop this media suppression irrespective of party politics and respect\nfreedom of speech, fair criticism, democracy, good governance, rule of law\nand media freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you !<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chathuranga De Alwis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chairman\n\nFor coordination \u2013 Chathuranga \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Movement for Web Journalists The National Movement for Web Journalists protests the attempt to suppress the media and journalists after the new government was elected who acted in opposition to the incumbent President Gotabhaya Rajapakse during the presidential election which ended shortly. With the victory of the new president on November 17, 2019, many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95796","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=95796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}