The newspaper was politically independent, and exposed corruption, mismanagement and human rights violations by the Rajapaksa government.
On 18 January 2007, the Inland Revenue Department raided a number of companies associated with the Alles family, including Standard Newspapers.
Dushyantha Basnayake, finance director of CBE, was arrested by the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) on 26 February 2007, allegedly for giving money to the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The TID questioned numerous newspaper staff for many days and raided the offices of CBE on 5 March 2007, seizing financial documents and correspondence.
On 6 March 2007, CBE's mobile phone services in the north and east of the country were suspended by the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on the orders of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.