Sri Lanka Court shuts news website

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 April 2011, 00:46 GMT]
A Magistrate court in Colombo Thursday ordered the ban of the trilingual website after the site was accused of posting an inaccurate news item regarding a pending court case. The Pugoda Magistrate, Aravinda Perera, ordered the Telecommunication Regulations Authority to ban the site (Lankaenews.com) until the judicial proceeding of contempt by publication of the news item is concluded, legal sources in Colombo said.

Journalist Shantha Wijesuriya of the website who is in custody for the publication of the wrong news item was further remanded until May 12.

The news website had published a news item that a Magistrate had been ordered to release two accused and the Magistrate had failed to carryout the order. The news item quoted the relatives of the suspects.

Subsequently the website carried an apology admitting the news item was inaccurate.

In January the website office close to Colombo was set on fire by an unidentified group while the News Editor was arrested later in relation to the same incident after being accused of threatening one of the suspects in the case.