South Asia Citizens Web

We the undersigned civil society organisations and individuals express grave concern over the press release issued by the Director General of the Department of Government Information on 5th November 2011, which requires all ‘websites carrying any content relating to Sri Lanka or the people of Sri Lanka… uploaded from Sri Lanka or elsewhere’ to ‘register’ for ‘accreditation.’ We also condemn the actions of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) that has, according to a Sunday Times news report, moved to block a number of specific websites in line with this. While it is unclear whether the two measures are part of a single initiative or not, they represent an unacceptable incursion into free expression in Sri Lanka.

Media-persons and media organizations critical of the government continue to be at the receiving end of threats and abuse. The recent decision of the ministry of mass media and information to block no less than five websites cannot but be read as part of this established practice.

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) study of public and private Pakistani school textbooks that reveals Pakistani children are being taught intolerance toward non-Muslim religious minorities.

This is with reference to the recent Censor Board directive to the filmmakers of the Hindi movie Rockstar, directed by Imtiaz Ali. We are surprised and shocked to learn about the Central Board of Film Certification’s decision to remove of the Tibetan National Flag and blurring the ’Free Tibet’ banners from the movie sequence.

Religious TV programming has increased rapidly over the past few years, and clerics who previously preached morning, noon and night in mosques now sermonise on the airwaves. Earlier in the year, research conducted by Sahar Gul and commissioned by the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) carried some shocking revelations vis-à-vis the content of these religious broadcasts shown in Pakistan. The research unit monitored 17 channels available locally and via cable operators over a period of four months.