Sri Lanka Mirror emphasizes that Mass Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella’s statement that the government banned several websites which do not comply with ‘the right to reply’ concept is not relevant to the blocking of our website.
Speaking at the Cabinet press briefing at the Government Information Department Auditorium yesterday (17), Minister Rambukwella said that all websites are required to register with the Department of Government Information.
This will enable the government to be aware of who is conducting these websites and enable the government to respond against any content which carries false information, character assassinations etc., he said.
Nevertheless, the government is unable to respond thus if a website is not registered as required and therefore, such websites have been banned to protect the ‘the right to reply’ concept, the Minister further said.
However, a journalist at the press briefing pointed out that it is still possible to find out who had registered a website in a domain even though it is not registered with the Department of Government Information.
Dismissing the question, the Media minister said that several leading democratic countries too, have blocked dozens of websites.
www.srilankamirror.com has always conformed to the Sri Lankan law and never published news detrimental to the national security of Sri Lanka.
There have never been any allegations against our website that it published any material contrary to the Sri Lankan law.
Also, months before the government made it mandatory for websites to be registered, we requested from the Information Department for registration and accreditation on July 20, but is yet to be responded to.
In addition, we have not hesitated to publish a correction in regard to an erroneous news item.
Further, contact numbers of persons responsible for the site has been published on the website.
Therefore, we strongly emphasize that the statement of Minister Rambukwella is irrelevant in regard to www.srilankamirror.com.