PTI
Colombo, May 25: Sri Lanka has banned screenings of The Da Vinci Code in theatres and local television channels following an appeal by the country's Catholic Bishops Conference, a state-run daily said on Thursday.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered the ban on the film on Wednesday, The Daily News reported.
Christians - mostly Roman Catholics - account for about 7.5 per cent of Sri Lanka's population of nearly 19 million people, which is predominantly Buddhist.
There would be no ban on the sale of the book, the daily said.
Many Christians have expressed outrage at the movie's theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had offspring and that the Vatican and conservative Catholic group Opus Dei tried to cover it up.
"The movie attacks the very roots of Christian faith and hurts the sentiments of all Christians," the Catholics Bishop Conference said in a letter to the Sri Lankan President.