Then the eagerly awaited moment arrived when the Secretary Defence, invited by the Military Spokesman and Director of the MOD Media Centre Brigadier Sumith Atapattu officially launched the new revamped website, unveiling to the world the results of months of dedicated effort and hard work by the MOD Defence Information Unit. The Secretary, after going through the new and improved website, expressed his gratitude to the team of Tri Forces personnel of the Defence Information Unit for their dedication and hard work in coming up with such an attractive, improved and much more user friendly website. Additional Secretaries, Private Secretary to the Defence Minister, Military
Spokesman and Director of the MoD Media Centre, Military Liaison Officer, Spokespersons of the Air Force and Navy and senior Tri Forces and Police officers were also present at the occasion. The website has a number of new features making it more user friendly, attractive and efficient while retaining its core concepts. The official website of the Ministry of Defence, www.defence.lk is one of the most popular official government websites in Sri Lanka. It was the most visited defence website during the Humanitarian Operations drawing in millions of visits. This website was launched in 2006 with the aim to provide authentic and up to date news on the umanitarian Operations and also to counter LTTE propaganda and the misinformation campaign spread by groups with vested interests. This website is one of the earliest official websites of a Ministry to be launched in the country,
as internet penetration among the population was still at its infancy.In addition to providing true and factually correct information on the Humanitarian Operations the website also provided information on the services provided by the Ministry of Defence.'With the end of war, the website took a new and wider role in order to promote the Reconciliation Process and National Development Drive while maintaining its original objectives of national security.With the change of times and technological developments, the need was felt for achange that was necessary for the website to keep up with the emerging trends
especially the internet and mobile use becoming more popular among the people.It is expected that this new designed website would create a much more userfriendly browsing experience for our patrons the world over. It is designed in such a way as to make it easy to navigate and also contains several new features to make
it more exciting and efficient. The website is regularly updated, by a dedicated team of Tri Forces personnel 24/7/365 with the latest news in relation to national security, and other institutions coming under the purview of the Ministry including the Tri Forces, Police, and CSD. Those seeking information on services offered by the Ministry would also find the website very useful. The new site has a device friendly responsive design with a user- friendly layout. It has quick accessible features which makes browsing all the more efficient and exiting. User Monitoring System and Search Engine Optimization are some of the other two new features. It also has quick access to the President’s Site. Another special feature is the facility to verify Fake News.