Opposition parties slam purported licence-cancelling broadcast authority

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By Editor_1
-economynext.com

COLOMBO– A purported Broadcast Authority in Sri Lanka that will allegedly have the power to cancel licences issued to the media have come under criticism from the opposition.

Opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) legislator and lawyer M. A. Sumanthiran told reporters on Wednesday (May 31) that the bill on the establishment of this statutory body, if enacted, could violate several fundamental rights including the people’s right to information.

“Everyone knows that there have been many attempts in recent times to impose constraints on people’s right to information. This authority will decide which information is true and whether it can be broadcast,” he said.

The proposed act will also empower the authority to cancel broadcast licences of those who already hold them, Sumanthiran warned

The MP said that a similar attempt to bring in such legislation in 1997 was thwarted after then opposition United National Party (UNP) MP Gamnii Athukorala challenged it in the Supreme Court, which determined that the bill would need a referendum in addition to a two-thirds majority in Parliament for it to become law.

“The Supreme Court determined that it went against Article 10 of the Constitution,” said Sumanthiran, noting the current bill violates several fundamental rights, and that they party strongly opposes the bill.

“It’s not just the media, but the people’s right to information is also challenged by this,” Sumanthiran said.

Main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Harsha de Silva deemed the purported bill undemocratic, warning, “If these people are given the power to cancel a licence – this isn’t objective, it’s subjective, meaning four or five people will decide this.”

Pointing out that authorizing a person to censor the content of a broadcast channel would be wholly undemocratic, he noted that the government had tried to do the same thing through the Counter Terrorism Act but failed. “So it seems they’re now trying to bring it in with this.”

“We see it as a death blow to democracy,” he said, urging the government not to go ahead with it

“If not, we will oppose it vehemently and fight for the people’s democratic rights,” he warned..

Meanwhile, the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) said, while it supports media freedom, the abuse of that freedom cannot be permitted.

SLPP general secretary and MP Sagara Kariyawasam told reporters on Wednesday that some media organizations abused their freedom to make false allegations against the party leadership.

“We are of the firm stand that the media must be independent and that that independence must be facilitated, but if anyone abuses media freedom as a sort of freedom of the wild ass, measures must be taken against that too,” he warned.

“We saw how that freedom was enjoyed in the recent past making allegations with no basis. We saw how there were severe allegations made through the media that the Rajapaksas had engaged in thievery,” Kariyawasam said claiming that people voted in the UNP-led Yahapalana government in 2015 to investigate these allegations.

“But that government realized that there wasn’t even a single incident,” he said.

-economynext.com

 

Editor_1
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