Sri Lanka Parliament votes to go ahead with Online Safety bill amid opposition

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By Editor_1

COLOMBO— Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Tuesday (23) voted to go ahead with a scheduled debate on a controversial Online Safety Bill that critics say will stifle freedom of speech on the internet.

A party leaders’ meeting was held Tuesday morning on the request of the opposition to discuss the matter. After Parliament had reconvened later in the morning, opposition legislators complained that they had yet to receive a copy of the Sectoral Oversight Committee’s report on the bill in time for the debate.

Opposition MPs then proposed postponing the debate to a later date on account of this delay. They lacked adequate information on the contents of the bill to proceed with the debate, the MPs said. Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena himself said he had only received the report earlier in the morning.

Government MPs objected to this request, however, insisting that Parliament go ahead with the debate as planned. Upon this, Speaker Abeywardena called for a vote on whether or not to proceed with the debate. Out of 225 legislators, 83 voted in favour of holding the debate on Tuesday while only 50 voted against it.

The debate is currently underway.

Opposition MPs and other critics have warned that the Online Safety Bill could be a threat to freedom of speech. The bill, along with a new counter-terror law has drawn criticism from various quarters including civil society. The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) said in early January that the introduction of the two bills and other measures are some examples where Sri Lanka’s space for dissent is “fast shrinking with fears of increasing authoritarian and militarised trends that erode the rule of law and threaten Sri Lanka’s fragile peace.”

Meanwhile, around 71.6% of the Sri Lankan public are unaware of the Online Safety Bill, the CPA survey has found.

“Responding to [President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s] government’s proposed legislation; Anti-Terrorism Act and Online Safety Bill, a majority of Sri Lankans expressed that they are ignorant about both these proposed legislation,” the organization’s Confidence in Democratic Governance Index report found.

-economynext.com

 

Editor_1
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