SL Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a Press Release reveled that the LTTE's illegal TV transmission to Europe, TTN has been terminated since yesterday (2nd ).

TTN was one of the biggest propaganda arms of the LTTE terrorists used for their misinformation and disinformation campaign against the SL citizens. Read below the full text of the press release by the SL foreign ministry:

Following representations made by the Government of Sri Lanka, the LTTE's illegal TV transmissions to Europe, through the Tamil Television Network (TTN), has been terminated.

Globecast, the satellite service provider for TTN, has confirmed to Sri Lanka's Embassy in France that it has stopped the TTN transmission using Eutelsat with effect from 2nd May.

The TTN is a pay channel and up to now was beamed to European subscribers through the service provider Globecast, which is a subsidiary of France Telecom. The TTN, which was up linking and broadcasting programmes of NTT had come under investigation by French authorities for broadcasting in France illegally and had been charged in courts.

Since its launch in 2005, the LTTE's so called official TV channel, 'National Television of Tamil Eelam' (NTT) originating from an undisclosed location in northern Sri Lanka, was up linked to Europe and Asia using Intelsat12, owned by Intelsat Ltd. based in the USA, and beamed across Europe using TTN based in Paris.

Earlier, in March 2007, on the sidelines of the International Telecommunication Satellite Organisation (ITSO) meeting in Paris, the Sri Lanka Embassy in France made representations to the delegations from Intelsat, the US State Department and ITSO drawing their attention to the use of Intelsat by the LTTE, and pointing out the connection between the LTTE and its clandestine TV channel NTT. Sri Lanka telecommunications authorities also communicated with the CEO of Intelsat Ltd., Mr. David McGlade.

Following representation made directly with Intelsat headquarters in Washington D.C by the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington, in a press release issued on April 11, 2007, on the illegal use of Intelsat12 by the LTTE for its TV and radio transmissions to Europe and Asia, the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Intelsat Mr. Phillip Spector, said, "Intelsat does not tolerate terrorists or others operating illegally on its satellites. Since we first learned of the LTTE's signal piracy, we have been actively pursuing a number of technical alternatives to halt the transmissions. We are clear in our resolve to ending this terrorist organization's unauthorized use of our satellite." The matter was also raised with the US Department of State and the Department of Justice.

Subsequently, Intelsat informed the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington that over the April 21/22 weekend, it had shut down the transponder, which the LTTE had used for its 'unauthorized' NTT transmissions.

These combined actions, by US based Intelsat and France based Globecast to terminate use of its facilities by the LTTE and its front organizations, is expected to cause a significant blow to the LTTE's global dis-information campaign.