Mobile phone messages used by government to spread UN petition

by admin
May 10, 2012
The Sri Lankan government has been sending notifications to mobile phone users in the country, urging them to sign a petition addressed to the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, according to reports.

Both bloggers and twitter users have been reporting that every time a text was sent or a call made, and the balance was displayed on pre-paid networks, a message appeared stating, "Pledge support for SL by signing the petition at www.peacepetition4lk.org" .

The petition, hosted by change.org, stated,
“Free sovereign independent Sri Lanka does not need anyone to set timetables for its peace process nor external bodies to monitor it.”
Earlier this year, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapksa sent a text message out to all registered mobile phones in the country, greeting them a happy New Year, in English and Sinhala only. See the text message below.

Also see our earlier post: Sri Lanka censors text messages (12 March 2012)

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button