Supreme Court snubs FR petition on interference of access to websites

By S.S. Selvanayagam

The Supreme Court yesterday (16) ruled there is no basis to grant leave to proceed and dismissed the fundamental rights petition challenging the alleged extra legal restriction on websites in Sri Lanka.

The Bench comprised Chief Justice Shirani A. Bandaranayake, Justices N.G.Amaratunga and Suresh Chandra. The Petition was on behalf of Free Media Movement (FMM) citing the Director General of Government Information Prof. Ariyarathna Ethugala, Minister of Media & Information Keheliya Rambukwella, Secretary to the Ministry W.B. Ganagala, Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRC), its Director General Anusha Palpita and the Attorney General as Respondents.

Petitioners are Sunil Jayasekera (Convener) and Udaya Kalupthirana (Member of the Executive Committee) of FMM.

J.C. Weliamuna with Shantha Jayawardena appeared for the Petitioners. Deputy Solicitor General Shavindra Fernando with Senior State Council Nerin Pulle appeared for the Director General of Government Information, Minister of Media and Information, Ministry Secretary and the Attorney General. D.S. Wijesinghe PC with Kaushalya Molligoda appeared for the TRC. Ali Sabry appeared for the Director General of TRC.

Petitioners state that on 5 November 2011, the Director General of Government Information issued a press release requiring “all websites” carrying any content relating to Sri Lanka or the people of Sri Lanka uploading from Sri Lanka or elsewhere to “register” with the Ministry of Media and Information forthwith.