Lanka imposes censorship on war reporting
Sri Lanka has imposed censorship on war reporting a week after Tamil Tiger rebels carried out a devastating attack on the country's air force, officials said yesterday.
President Mahinda Rajapakse used tough emergency laws to ban the publication of any information on military operations as well as procurement, according to a government notice obtained by AFP.
The move follows last week's rebel attack that virtually wiped out Sri Lanka's fleet of spy planes. The Tamil Tigers used a group of 21 elite suicide bombers to smash the Anuradhapura base where 14 troopers were also killed.
A notice on the "Prohibition on Publication and Transmission of Sensitive Military Information" was issued by Rajapakse to prevent any reports on military operations as well as plans to buy equipment for security forces or the police.
The government is to appoint a "competent authority" to enforce the censorship, the notice said, although a spokesman for the information ministry said it had yet to work out the implementation of the new regulation.
Comments