The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), together with its affiliate, the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), has urged Sri Lanka’s government to honour its pledge to uphold freedom of expression.

In a statement, the groups raised concerns over a Sri Lankan minister directing police to use emergency powers against individuals criticising the country’s president amid the country’s worst natural disaster in decades. 

According to the statement, speaking at a meeting with police officers on December 3, the deputy minister of public security, Sunil Watagala, claimed “malicious attacks” against Sri Lanka’s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and senior ministers were being circulated online, particularly from Sri Lankans residing abroad. During the meeting, the minister warned that if the alleged defamation continued, Sri Lankan authorities would invoke the Public Security Act. Emergency powers under Section 5 of the Public Security Act allow wide restrictions on information during crises.

Despite the minister’s comments, the Sri Lankan President has pledged that the Act would not be used to silence legitimate criticism or dissent.

The SLWJA has criticised the minister’s proposed directive as an attempt to suppress freedom of expression under the guise of disaster management.

The directive comes as Sri Lanka grapples with responding to the devastating impacts of Cyclone Ditwah, which passed through the island nation on November 28, killing at least 474 people and leaving at least 356 missing. Nearly 1.1 million people have been impacted nationwide, with the president describing the disaster as the most challenging in Sri Lanka’s history.

Amid the disaster, IFJ has been advised by its Sri Lankan affiliates that some journalists and media workers reporting the cyclone’s destruction and its fallout are continuing to place themselves at undue risks for the sake of securing stories. Some media reports had also fallen prey to publishing unverified information, fake news and sensationalist coverage, which only served to exacerbate rather than help recovery efforts. The IFJ strongly advises that media workers follow the IFJ Charter on climate action, which emphasises ethical environmental reporting.

The IFJ and its Sri Lankan affiliates remind journalists of the critical importance of upholding professional reporting and exercising extreme caution while reporting on natural disasters. All information and claims should be thoroughly fact-checked before publication to avoid doing further harm or creating undue stress for an already suffering population. So too, journalists should remain vigilant of their own safety in the course of their reporting and remind that no story is worth dying for.

SLWJA said: “In the backdrop of several prior instances where the government has threatened media freedom during the past year, SLWJA strongly condemns the Deputy Minister’s statement.”

The IFJ said: “The media has an enormous responsibility to report and deliver professional and ethical news, especially in times of crisis, and the government should continue to support the public’s right to know and its right to freedom of expression.” (Newswire)

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The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), together with its affiliates the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA) and the Free Media Movement (FMM), has urged the new government to heed civil society calls to bring the country forward on critical reforms.

Issuing a statement, IFJ said the new Sri Lankan government led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been criticised for failing to address concerns from civil society about his government’s willingness to foster more inclusive and accountable governance through citizen participation. 

To date, Sri Lanka’s new government has remained unresponsive to repeated outreach from civil society groups calling for a renewed commitment by the new administration to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) to promote greater transparency, to empower citizens, fight corruption and strengthen governance.

The OGP is a multilateral global initiative founded in 2011 in the UN General Assembly with initial members comprising Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. It has since expanded to include 75 member countries and thousands of civil society organisations and is aimed at seeking commitments from governments. Under the mandate of the OGP, members are required to create a two-year National Action Plan through a multi-stakeholder process to implement governance reforms in collaboration with civil society.

Hopes were renewed that Sri Lanka would abide by its commitments to the OGP after the country experienced a political shift in 2024 following the election sweep by the National People’s Power party in the historic political transition in 2024, that forced out the United National Party long dominated by the Rajapaksa political dynasty over 76 years.

On May 7, Transparency International Sri Lanka and the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, as co-conveners of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) involved in Sri Lanka’s OGP process, urged the Sri Lankan government to recommit to the Open Government Partnership amid the risk of its expulsion. In a statement, the groups said the continued silence underscored a broader pattern of weak consultative governance and emphasised that restoring trust in public institutions required a firm commitment to open, inclusive, and participatory governance that reflects the voices and needs of the people.

In 2024, Sri Lankan CSOs withdrew from the Sri Lankan National Action Plan in protest against the oppressive and undemocratic laws introduced by the previous government led by Ranil Wickremesinghe. Since the NPP’s election, CSO have now formally expressed a willingness to re-engage with the country’s newly elected cabinet following an NPP pledge to repeal legislation that curtailed participatory governance and civil liberties.

The current frustration from Sri Lankan civil society groups, while targeted at the new administration, is also underpinned by a long pattern of neglect by previous governments. From 2021 to 2023, successive governments failed to submit a National Action Plan under the OGP, prompting the global OGP Steering Committee to designate Sri Lanka as ‘inactive’ in a resolution passed on 10 May 2024. To restore its active status, Sri Lanka was due to submit a new Action Plan by 10 May 2025, but the current administration has yet to comply.

The FMM said: “The government’s inaction – while retaining draconian legislation – exposes its indifference to constitutional freedoms. FMM demands immediate recommitment to OGP with civil society to repeal anti-media laws; embed press freedom in the National Action Plan and guarantee transparent policymaking. Media freedom cannot survive without institutional checks. The OGP is our last firewall against authoritarian regression.”

The SLWJA said: “We believe it’s crucial to re-engage the current Sri Lankan government in a participatory governance model that includes civil society organisations. In the past, the Sri Lankan government has had positive experiences working with such civil organisations to implement ‘Good Governance.’ Reviving this approach could lead to more effective and accountable governance.”

The IFJ said: “Press freedom can only thrive within a functioning democracy, and the continued neglect of participatory governance and civil society engagement raises serious questions about the administration’s commitment to legislative reform. It is urgent that press freedom is front and centre of such a discussion.” (Newswire)

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The new Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) proposed by the Sri Lankan parliament, designed to replace the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) of 1979, threatens to further exacerbate restrictions on the right to assembly and gravely curtail freedom of expression and press freedom, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) stated. 

Issuing a statement, the IFJ said it joins its Sri Lankan affiliates, the Sri Lankan Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union (FMETU), and the Free Media Movement (FMM), in strongly condemning the bill and urging Sri Lankan authorities to withdraw the proposed draft and repeal the punitive PTA.

On March 17, the Sri Lankan government announced its intention to replace the country’s current draconian terrorism act with the new ATA. The proposed legislation has been criticised by trade unions, human rights organisations, civil society, legal experts, and press freedom advocates, who have identified the bill’s potential to crack down on dissent and civic space amidst ongoing instability across the island.

The law would expand the legal definition of terrorist offences beyond international guidelines and include the infliction of serious damage to any place of public use, the obstruction of essential services, and participation in an unlawful assembly deemed by the government to be connected to ‘terrorism’. The law would also criminalise the distribution of materials or services that allow others to possess ‘terrorist publications’ and the publication of words or signs that may be understood by members of the public to conduct, encourage, or induce a terrorist offence, among many new and arbitrary charges.

Non-judicial detentions, previously only invocable by the Minister of Defence, could now be requested by a Deputy Inspector General Of Police, the third highest rank in the Sri Lanka police force. Abuses of power historically recorded under the PTA may be increased as law enforcement would be sanctioned to create ‘approved places of detention’ outside of Sri Lanka’s court structure, which has previously allowed for police torture of the arbitrarily detained. All arrests would occur before any formal charges were submitted.

The IFJ stated that under the proposed ATA, the president would have the power to invoke proscriptive orders, restricting organisations labelled ‘terrorist’ from accessing funds or maintaining membership. The president would also have the power to order curfews, declare places ‘prohibited’, instate rehabilitation programs, and obtain restriction orders that prohibit movement and activities, all conducted outside of the court system. The Attorney General may also compel those charged under the ATA to produce guilty testimonies, as the AG may relieve an individual charged under the act for up to 20 years if they conduct conciliatory actions.

The legislation has been announced after decades of local and international criticism surrounding human rights abuses, often directed towards journalists, and ethnic and religious minorities, that were conducted under the PTA by successive Sri Lankan governments. According to Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, the bill is expected to be presented to the Sri Lankan Parliament in late April and could come into law as early as May 2023.

Dharmasiri Lankapeli, the General Secretary of the FMETU, said: “This so-called Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) has provisions more draconian and tyrannical in nature compared to its predecessor PTA. […] The government has been compelled to put off the presenting of the ATA bill to Parliament due to vehement opposition by people, including lawyers’ organizations, civil organizations, trade unions, and media organizations. We, the FMETU, call on all those who uphold the values of democracy and rule of law to rally against this government’s attempt to arm itself with oppressive powers against people.”

The FMM said: “Although the national security of a country is an essential issue for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of the citizen, Free Media Movement strongly condemns the government’s imposition of laws to deprive citizens of freedom of expression and speech under the guise of national security. The Free Media Movement raised its voice against the cases where the government tried to violate the freedom of expression of the citizens through the arbitrary laws brought by the government earlier, such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The Free Media Movement recognizes that many of the inhuman and arbitrary clauses in the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act are preventing citizens, especially human rights activists, from expressing their free opinion and criticizing the mal behaviour of state institutions.”

The SLWJA said: “The SLWJA expresses grave concern regarding the Government of Sri Lanka’s proposed Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). The SLWJA believes that the proposed ATA is even more dangerous than the PTA as it could label, delegitimise, and ultimately dehumanise those the government considers to be its political enemies. The SLWJA urges the Government of Sri Lanka to engage in meaningful dialogue with civil society and the international community to address the concerns regarding the proposed ATA.

The IFJ said: “The proposed Anti-Terrorist Act is a condemnable and dangerous alternative to the already flawed PTA, threatening to further undermine freedoms of expression, press, and assembly in Sri Lanka. If passed, journalists, media workers and their representative unions and organisations who are deemed critical of the Sri Lankan government face legal persecution under undemocratic and arbitrary ‘terrorist activities’. The IFJ strongly condemns the proposed ATA and urges the Sri Lankan authorities to immediately withdraw the bill and amend the existing draconian PTA.” (NewsWire)

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