Comment Policy

The opportunity to comment on this story or opinion piece is offered by the Sri Lanka Guardian subject to the following terms and conditions:

All user comments are moderated by the Sri Lanka Guardian which means contributions will be checked before they are posted to the site.

Contributions will be updated regularly while the story is open for comment but users should keep in mind that the opportunity to comment on stories may close relatively quickly.

This will be determined by a number of factors including the range of opinions received, whether a particular story or opinion piece has attracted the interest of our users, and whether another issue has developed which deserves to be made available for comment. Our policy of moderating comments on stories means there will be limits to the number of stories we can have open at any one time.

There may be some delay before your contribution appears on the site. Users should also keep in mind that follow-up stories on the same issue may themselves be opened for comment well after comments on the original story have closed.

• The Sri Lanka Guardian reserves the right to edit comments. A comment may be edited because the contribution is too long, strays partly off topic or contains inappropriate language. The decision to edit a comment is at the discretion of the Sri Lanka Guardian.

• Messages, which the Sri Lanka Guardian considers to be abusive, defamatory, discriminatory or off-topic, or otherwise unlawful, will not be accepted. Messages that are factually wrong and misleading may also be deleted.

• Preference will be given to contributions which are no more than 200 words long but the Sri Lanka Guardian reserves the right to publish longer contributions if, in the view of the editors, a comment offers a particular insight.

• While the Sri Lanka Guardian aims to provide balanced coverage of issues, this is a public discussion reflecting the views of its participants. From time to time, one particular side of the debate may dominate views expressed on a story. This simply reflects the natural flow of contributions we receive. The Sri Lanka Guardian will attempt where possible to present a representative selection of views.

• The Sri Lanka Guardian reserves the right to reject contributions which represent viewpoints that have been widely canvassed. It also reserves the right to reject contributions from participants who seek to dominate the discussion.

• Contributions that seek to endorse commercial products or activities or solicit business will not be accepted.

• The Sri Lanka Guardian will internally archive comments attached to stories and opinion pieces. However, the Sri Lanka Guardian's policy is that comments will be removed from stories some time after the stories have been published. This time period will be at the discretion of the Sri Lanka Guardian. As a general principle, comments will not be removed from stories while those stories are still "in the news".

• The Sri Lanka Guardian advises contributors not to use their full names. The Sri Lanka Guardian will not publish contributors'; email addresses and other contact details as part of comments.

• Comments on stories will not be treated as program complaints. The Sri Lanka Guardian has a variety of complaints handling mechanisms available to members of the audience who wish to complain about Sri Lanka Guardian programming material.

• Contributors should keep in mind that moderators may not have the opportunity to check all external websites that have been linked to within submitted comments. For this reason, Sri Lanka Guardian reserves the right to delete or edit any comments containing links. Comments containing links are therefore less likely to be accepted.

Editor,
Sri Lanka Guardian 
editor@srilankaguardian.org