With the Young Journalists' Association (YJA) and four others filing a petition before the Supreme Court (SC), requesting that the proposed Online Safety Bill (OSB) be declared unconstitutional, the petitions that have been filed against the said Bill have reached nearly 50.
Among the petitioners are YJA President Tharindu Iranga Jayawardhana, its Secretary M.F.M. Fazeer, its Convenor Shalika Wimalasena, its Treasurer B. Nirosh Kumar, human rights activist Ruki Fernando, attorney Suren D. Perera, social media activist Anuruddha Bandara, and Dishara Fernando.
The petitioners have stated that many fundamental rights – including the right to freedom of speech and expression, and the rights to be free from torture and mental distress, and discrimination – have been violated by the Bill, and that many of its clauses are against the Constitution. The petitioners stated that by giving judicial powers to a commission appointed by the President as stated in the Bill, several other fundamental rights of citizens would be violated.
Considering the matters, the petitioners have requested the SC to rule that a referendum with a special majority in Parliament is necessary to make the OSB a law.
The 14-day period for filing petitions before the SC challenging the OSB, which was included in the order paper of Parliament on 3 October, ended yesterday (17). Informed sources told The Daily Morning that nearly 50 petitions have been filed by several parties such as Opposition Parliamentarians representing the main Parliamentary Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya and the Freedom People’s Congress, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Colombo Archbishop Malcom Cardinal Ranjith, the Ceylon Teachers' Union and several other trade unions, the Centre for Policy Alternatives, and various other civil society and political organisations, and individuals.
The SC has received 34 petitions so far against the proposed Bill, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana informed Parliament yesterday. Issuing an announcement in the House, Speaker Abeywardana informed that the SC had received 34 petitions filed by various civil society organisations and individuals including the Catholic Church, and that he had also received copies of those petitions in his capacity as Speaker of the House.
The much debated OSB was tabled in Parliament by Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles, despite being under fire for some of its problematic aspects.
The Bill, published in the Government gazette notification on 18 September, aims to prohibit the online communication of certain statements within the country, to prevent the use of online accounts – both authentic and inauthentic – for the use of prohibited purposes, to make provisions to identify and declare online locations used for prohibited purposes, to suppress the financing and other support of the communication of false statements, and for other matters connected therewith.