segunda-feira, 31 de janeiro de 2011

Office of Web site, a govt critic, torched

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- The office of Lanka-e-News, a Sri Lankan Web site critical of the government, was set on fire Monday, the site said in its account of the fire.

The operations were moved to another site because the office "is so badly damaged" the Web site cannot be maintained there, the report said. Among other things, a computer room and library were destroyed.

"By now it has become very clear that the fire has been created by the use of fuel -- petrol," the Web posting said. "The arsonists have broken open the front door and entered the premises to commit the crime".

The Web site said two individuals were seen "hovering around the Lanka-e-News premises" Sunday and asked about the staff but no arrests had been made.

"For many days now, we [learned] from neighbors, unknown men have been carrying out surveillance outside and making inquiries about staff. Last night a caller threatened me that I would be killed," CNN reported the Web site's editor, Bennet Rupasinghe, as saying. "All this is because we have been posting stories critical of the government".

The Web site said 14 journalists have been killed since Mahinda Rajapaksa came into power.

"This certainly reflects poorly on the [government] particularly because, while these attacks on the media had been ruthlessly escalating, the [government] had clearly demonstrated an incapacity to bring the culprits to book," the Web site posting read. "It constitutes an indelible black mark against the [government]". UPI