(FMM/IFEX) – The following is an FMM press release: The Free Media Movement warmly congratulates the government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Sri Lankan parliament, who unanimously passed an act of parliament on June 18, 2002, that repealed criminal defamation laws from the statute books. This is the first major legislation in over […]
(FMM/IFEX) – The following is an FMM press release:
The Free Media Movement warmly congratulates the government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Sri Lankan parliament, who unanimously passed an act of parliament on June 18, 2002, that repealed criminal defamation laws from the statute books.
This is the first major legislation in over two decades to strengthen freedom of expression in Sri Lanka. The FMM has been campaigning for nearly a decade to have the repressive legislation, introduced during the British colonial rule, abolished. The campaign was later supported by both the Editors’ Guild and the Publishers’ Association. International organisations such as the Commonwealth Press Union, The World Association of Newspapers, the International Press Institute, the Committee to Protect Journalists and ARTICLE 19 have strongly supported the campaign by the three Sri Lankan media organisations to repeal laws constraining freedom of expression and establish a legal and institutional framework that guarantees freedom of expression in a democratic environment.
Since the 1970s, successive governments have used this law to harass newspaper editors and impose serious constraints on the media.
At a meeting with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in January, the government and representatives of the three media organisations, the FMM, the Editors’ Guild and the Publishers’ Association, reached an agreement on a wide-ranging reform package to strengthen freedom of expression in the country. The package includes abolishing laws that curtail freedom of expression, introducing a right to information act, replacing the Press Council with an independent Press Complaints Commission and setting up an independent media training institute. Most of the details with regards to setting up the institutions have been finalised in subsequent meetings with the secretary to the prime minister and secretary to the Ministry of Mass Communications.
The Free Media Movement hopes that the government will implement the rest of the reform package without delay.
Sunanda Dshapriya
Convenor Free Media Movement
20 June 2002
