Sri Lanka opposition fights website shutdown

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Sri Lanka opposition fights website shutdown

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Srilankaxnews.com and srilankamirror.com, have been critical of President Rajapakse's government.

01 July,2012 02:16 pm

Sri Lankas main opposition on Sunday vowed to resist a police crackdown against its news website after the United States asked the government to stop harassing journalists in the island.Opposition United National Party lawmaker Mangala Samaraweera said police tried to silence their Sri Lanka X News website (srilankaxnews.com) by seizing computer equipment on Friday, but that it would resume publishing shortly.They have taken away all our computers, but that does not mean they can shut us down, Samaraweera told reporters in Colombo. We will continue to expose this corrupt regime.Nine employees arrested by police were freed on bail Saturday after a magistrate noted that the provisions of the law used to detain them were repealed in 2002.This was a politically motivated raid, said Samaraweera.The United States on Saturday joined rights groups in demanding that Sri Lanka stop targeting media organisations and said it was closely following action against of opposition websites.Srilankaxnews.com and another pro-opposition site, srilankamirror.com, have been critical of President Mahinda Rajapakses government, which is facing international censure over its human rights record amid a string of unsolved murders and attacks on independent journalists.