Hi, During the past couple of days reports had surfaced from various people about the difficulty of accessing TamilNet - the pro Tamil Tiger website. Now it seems to official - TamilNet.com has been blocked by the Sri Lankan Government. As of this moment (20 June 2007), it is not possible to access www.tamilnet.com via an ISP in Sri Lanka.
TamilNet is NOT an independent media, however it's an important source of information for those living in Sri Lanka. http://www.groundviews.org/2007/06/19/sri-lanka-blocks-tamilnet/ And for it to be described as the voice of a liberation movement, depends on the way the Tamil Tigers (or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam / LTTE) are perceived. The LTTE are labeled a terrorist organisation by the US, EU, India and Canada. They have a persistent track record of recruiting child soldiers. They popularised the suicide bomber. The LTTE, for the past 25 years, claimed to be fighting for a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka, who they claim they represent. It is next to impossible to determine how much support the LTTE really has. But, the Sri Lankan State - according to your perspective, is no better. Abductions, killings, extortion and intimidation allegations have been leveled against the Government and its proxies. The Sri Lankan Government's human rights record is condemned internationally. For some background, read: http://nautilus.rmit.edu.au/forum-reports/0712a-de-silva.html In Sri Lanka, the media is in crisis. Earlier this year, . There is the State run media - which is effectively a propaganda channel for the Government. Then there are a number of private media that shape their output depending on their own interests. In order to ascertain a picture of Sri Lanka - it's essential to read across many media, and that includes reading what TamilNet publishes. ## Call to mirror TamilNet.com It would be an interesting action for a tech-group or individual to mirror www.TamilNet.com under another URL. This would make obsolete the blocks already in place. It is possible to access the website via Google - but the browsing conditions aren't ideal. It may be that the website has already been mirrored... For more information about media freedom in Sri Lanka, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20798 Best, Sam. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
