Responding to an ill-advised and misguided petition filed by the IGP (yes, the same one who said mobile phones can be used by rape victims as evidence), the courts ordered the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) to ban twelve sex sites in July 2009. At the time, pro-government Sinhala media incredibly suggested that these sites were evidence [...]
Archive | January, 2010
Clamping down on websites in Sri Lanka with Chinese help
I have written extensively since 2005 on how the Rajapakse government has increasingly clamped down on websites. In From pornography to censorship? I flagged fears over the regime’s avowed desire to protect children from online pornography could lead to more blanket censorship of inconvenient content on the web. When the government went on to ban [...]
Media abuse in Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election
A short article I wrote for the Index on Censorship on the abuse of media in Sri Lanka in the campaign for the presidential elections in Sri Lanka is now online here. I end by noting that, Sri Lanka once had rich history of dissent, beyond the partisan bias of traditional print and electronic media. [...]
Presidential Campaigns grooving to New Media, says Daily Mirror
An article by Sumaiya Rizvi in the Daily Mirror looks at the use of web media and social networking by the contenders in Sri Lanka’s recently held Presidential Election. Titled Presidential Campaigns grooving to New Media, Sumaiya notes, Regardless of the extent of its appeal to the larger Sri Lankan population the campaign planners have [...]
Presidential election 2010: Archiving campaign websites of key candidates
Mahinda Rajapakse, who went on to win and Sarath Fonseka were two key candidates in Sri Lanka’s presidential election held on 26 January 2010. For around six week, the websites archived here on 27 January 2010 contained information on issues, policies and practices championed by both candidates. They also carried the usual propaganda and counter-propaganda. [...]
Haiti and the perennial challenge of information lock-in
Erik Hersman from Ushahidi makes the following pertinent observation, amongst others, in a recent blog post on the Ushahidi Situation Room for Haiti. “Decision-makers on the ground still do not have access to accurate, real-time data. That may be because of firewalls, lack of bandwidth, people are unaware these resources exist, the command structure of [...]
A public apology to Patrick Meier
Patrick Meier, now part of the Ushahidi Advisory Board and author of New Technologies in Emergencies and Conflicts: The Role of Information and Social Networks seems to have taken violent exception to my comments on this blog. In chronological order, the blog posts in question are: Some critical thoughts on New Technologies in Emergencies and [...]
IRIN podcast on use of technology in January 2010 Haiti earthquake aid effort
UN OCHA’s IRIN news service has a podcast up that features some of my observations on the use of technology / ICTs in Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake aid efforts. As I was speaking, I kept thinking how much had changed from the response to Cyclone Nargis just two years ago (albeit dealing with a very [...]
Groundviews hits 1,000 fans on Facebook and registers highest ever number of readers in a month
Perhaps it is the buzz about the Sri Lankan Presidential Elections, and the plethora of content the site features on it, that is driving these numbers. Groundviews hit a milestone today by registering 1,000 members on its Facebook fan page. We also have 413 followers to date on Twitter. The most web savvy newspaper group [...]
Vital information on Haiti earthquake aid
On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. Its shocking aftermath, the scale of which is only now coming to light, once again demonstrates the need for timely, accurate information to strengthen aid, response and recovery after a disaster. The ICT4Peace Foundation has created a page on its ICT4Peace Inventory wiki that links [...]
