H.E. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
President
Presidential Secretarial
Secretarial Building
Colombo
Sri Lanka

Vienna, 4 July 2000

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and journalists, is deeply concerned about the latest setbacks to press freedom in Sri Lanka and strongly condemns the reintroduction on 4 July of censorship measures aimed at local and foreign media.

According to IPI’s sources, the new regulations will make it possible for the government to censor war-related news and other reports considered to be “against national security”. The government also confirmed the re-appointment of Ariya Rubasinghe as the competent authority, or chief censor. These measures have been introduced in spite of the fact that on 30 June, the Supreme Court issued a ruling declaring previous censorship regulations, imposed after fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels escalated, illegal. In addition, the court held that Rubasinghe had no authority to act as a censor under the emergency laws used to appoint him. The court also overturned the government’s decision to close down two newspapers, The Sunday Leader and Irida Peramuna.

IPI believes that censorship regulations are an outright violation of everyone’s right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Therefore, IPI urges your excellency to ensure that laws and practices which restrict these rights are repealed. Furthermore, IPI urges Your Excellency to do everything in your power to ensure that all journalists are allowed to objectively report on developments in your country.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director