Sri Lankan police have raided offices of two news websites on Friday.
The offices of Sri Lanka Mirror and Sri Lanka X News, which are housed in the same building, were sealed and nine people, mostly journalists, were arrested.
The defence ministry said that the websites were carrying false information.
"The CID sealed the offices of two websites carrying false and vulgar reports,"
"People responsible for feeding information to the Internet through this office are being investigated." It said in a statement.
The sites concerned are supportive of the opposition and highly critical of the current government.
The Committee to Protect Journalists have condemned the raid and called on the government to stop harassing news outlets.
"Friday's raid shows that President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government remains determined to silence opposition voices," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator.
"Authorities should heed the many public appeals urging them to reverse this years-long policy of quashing media criticism of the government and military."
