Govt. assures international media delegation Freedom of Information bill will be passed before polls

Saturday, 7 March 2015 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Government has assured an international media delegation visiting the country that the long-awaited Freedom of Information bill will be tabled this month and passed in Parliament before the upcoming general election. The International Media Solidarity Delegation during its five-day visit to the island called on

the Sri Lankan government to ensure that critical media reform measures are made permanent and media freedom to be an absolute priority of the new administration. The international media mission, which represented the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the International Press Institute and International Freedom of Expression Exchange, urged the Government to build on the reforms in the second half of the 100 day platform. The delegation has travelled to Sri Lanka’s north to meet with journalists from Jaffna as well as provincial and regional journalists. In Colombo, the delegation has met Government ministers, metropolitan journalists and unions and conducted a national press conference and civil society forum on media freedom. The Government has also assured the delegation a commitment to tackle impunity for crimes against journalists, which according to the journalists, is a long-running and festering blight on Sri Lanka’s reputation globally. Government representatives have said that they had already requested the Inspector General of Police, N.K. Ilangakoon to carry out thorough investigations into journalist killings, with priority given to the 2009 murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge and the 2010 disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda. During meetings with local journalists, the delegation has noted the near universal agreement that the situation in Sri Lanka had improved, in some cases dramatically, since the January election. However, in the country’s north and in the northern city of Jaffna there remains a level of uncertainty about whether the atmosphere will last. The delegation has raised these issues with the Government, stressing the importance of ensuring any improvements to media freedom are long-lasting. “We welcome the Government’s stated commitment to ending the cycle of impunity and violence that has plagued Sri Lanka media over the past 25 years. We also welcome assurances from the government that the editorial independence of both print and broadcast state media will be respected. However, we reiterate our view that the only way to guarantee the independence of the State media in the future is through structural change that transforms state outlets into public service media dedicated to providing fair and balanced information to the Sri Lankan people,” the International Media Solidarity Delegation said.