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Obscene Publications Ordinance amended

25 Sep 2020

  • Preventing child pornographic material circulation
By Sarah Hannan The Cabinet of Ministers approved a proposal made by Minister of Justice Ali Sabry PC to instruct the Legal Draftsman to prepare a new bill that would take strict action against perpetrators that circulate, stream, and/or publish digital material that includes children being subject to grave sexual abuse or cast in productions of a pornographic nature. “While there are provisions in the Penal Code and the Obscene Publications Ordinance, the regulations and laws need to be updated to match the present times. At the same time, the charges that are imposed too need to be updated to match the present times. Therefore, we have reached out to the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT) to prepare a draft document that contains the proposed amendments,” Minister of Justice Sabry explained. ICTA and SLCERT prepared the document under the guidance of the Attorney General (AG)’s Department. With the Cabinet approving the said draft, Sabry advised the Legal Draftsman to proceed with the preparation of the new bill, which commenced this week. The decision to review and draft a new bill on obscene publications was reached after the Ministry of Justice observed an increase in the number of cases that were reported of child pornographic material documented in Sri Lanka being widely circulated on all mediums. Meanwhile, the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) in May received the necessary equipment for cybercrimes monitoring from Save the Children International – Sri Lanka to strengthen their Cyber Crime Investigations Unit. The equipment is to be used to protect children from cyber abuse.


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