Free Media Movement condemns Defence Ministry directive
Saturday, 12 July 2014 01:38
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The Free Media Movement in a statement yesterday vehemently condemned and disagreed with the circular issued on 1 July by the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development Director/Registrar D.M.S. Dissanayake, on the efforts to violate and wrench fundamental human rights enjoyed by civil and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) of Sri Lanka. Following is the statement:
The Free Media Movement stresses to all organisations and individuals who value democracy and freedom that it’s time to rise against such unjust and oppressive steps to violate human rights.
The circular says that some NGOs engage in certain activities which they are not supposed to engage in and they must stop those activities with immediate effect. It points out that NGOs are prohibited from holding press conferences, issuing media releases, conducting workshops or training programs for journalists, etc.
Accordingly, this circular directly violates the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, which are mentioned in the Constitution. On the other hand, the right to express and the right to assembly given to citizens by a constitution cannot be nullified by a mere circular.
A question is then raised: why weren’t officials of the Ministry of Defence aware of the fact that, even in a very special situation, such a step can only be taken by Parliament? If they have ignored that fact, it is quite evident that they have defamed the Constitution.
In addition, with NGOs being organisations operated by citizens of Sri Lanka, all rights enjoyed by citizens of the country should be extended to them as well. Therefore we stress that this circular is totally illegal and we further bring to notice that there is a danger of this circular being used to oppress the freedom of expression of any citizen in Sri Lanka. Also this circular violates many of the human rights charters that Sri Lanka has committed to internationally through the United Nations.
We emphasise that this circular is just another step taken forward to make Sri Lanka a dictatorial state. Therefore we would like to remind everyone that it is the supreme responsibility of the entire Sri Lankan nation to rally together to defeat this villainous motive
