Unsuppressed thoughts on Media Freedom in Sri Lanka
Media activists are concerned by what they term as a fresh wave of suppression in the form of legislation being introduced to regulate online media. It was to highlight this and a spate of other concerns relating to media freedom, that the Collective of Media organizations organized a protest in Colombo recently. This report brings you highlights from this event as well as views from the Government and academia on the matter.
Posted on July 20, 2012, in South Asia, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Politics, World News and tagged News, South Asia, Sri Lanka. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
The Network for Media and Human Rights in Sri Lanka, (NfR) condemns the recent actions taken by the Ministry of Mass Media and Communication in Sri Lanka to curtail the dissemination of ideas and information through websites, imposing registration fees, including the blocking of certain websites, raids on the office of two websites and the arrest and detention of staff at the office, states a media release from the organization today(20).
Referring to a cabinet press release, the statement says”…it was announced that a first off registration fee of Rs. 100,000 would be levied from each website, and that there would be a 50,000 rupee annual fee on all news casting websites including those that had registered in January 2012. There is no registration fee for any print media in Sri Lanka”
”…It is clear that without a clear definition of what constitutes a ‘news casting’ website this amendment and the regulation of websites imposed by the process of paid registration could become a tool for silencing democratic dissent and restricting the freedom of opinion and expression which is guaranteed by the Sri Lankan constitution as well as by international human rights law…” NfR statement underlines.