Free speech in Lanka under serious threat

Sri Lanka imposed a temporary nationwide social media blackout on Sunday as part of its efforts to contain public unrest triggered by the country’s worst economic crisis in decades. For a few hours, authorities restricted access to platforms including Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram, as a state of emergency was declared amid the widespread protests. The suspension of the services was aimed at preventing protesters from organising, but it was lifted just a few hours later as the move failed to prevent demonstrations. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government also revoked the state of emergency — which gave him sweeping powers to detain people and seize property — within days of imposing it, despite the political and economic turmoil gripping the island nation.

Critics slammed the government’s decision to temporarily block access to social media. “We have to be ensured of unrestricted access to social media and communication platforms and be allowed to work freely and independently. This could well be the country’s Arab Spring moment,” Faraz Shauketaly, a prominent Sri Lankan journalist, told DW. Nine years back, Shauketaly was shot by a group of unidentified men at his home near Colombo. He was at the time working for The Sunday Leader, a newspaper known for its critical reporting of the government. Dilrukshi Handunnetti, executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting, said: “We have witnessed this troubling phase in the last 20 years of curtailing freedoms and arbitrary arrests. Public nervousness is visible.”

Steven Butler, Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, called on the government to safeguard media freedom. “Sri Lanka must not use the state of emergency as a pretext to muzzle press freedom during this critical moment in the country’s history, when access to information is vital for all citizens,” he said in a statement.

Skyrocketing inflation, weak government finances, ill-timed tax cuts and the COVID-19 pandemic, which have hurt the tourism industry and foreign remittances, have wreaked havoc upon the Sri Lankan economy over the past several months. The island nation is facing severe shortages of essentials, sharp price rises and crippling power cuts in what is viewed as the South Asian country’s most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.

The speaker of the country’s parliament warned on Wednesday that the crippling economic crisis risks starvation across the island nation of about 22 million people.

Thousands of people have poured into the streets over the past few days demanding the resignation of President Rajapaksa, blaming him and his influential family — which has long dominated Sri Lankan politics — for the country’s economic meltdown. Several journalists have been assaulted and at least six were taken into custody by police personnel from Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force (STF) on March 31, according to the International Federation of Journalists. They were covering an anti-government protest in a suburb of the capital Colombo.

“In a nutshell, I am profoundly concerned that the government will act with a very heavy hand at the first chance they get. The Rajapaksas aren’t known for their democratic credentials or light-touch,” Sanjana Hattutowa, editor at the online portal Groundviews, told DW.

Written by Ahilan Kadirgamar, senior lecturer at the University of Jaffna, said that any attempts at repression by the government are likely to only increase the determination of the protesting masses.

This article was provided by Deutsche Welle