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PM refers draft of Freedom of Information Act to AG

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has referred the draft Freedom of Information Act proposed jointly by the Editors Guild and the Free Media Movement to the Attorney General for his study with a view to introducing a Bill in Parliament shortly to make government open to greater public and press scrutiny.

At a high-powered meeting held at Temple Trees recently between the Government and media representatives, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that it was government policy to pass legislation giving access to the public and the press on government decisions.

He said policy decisions will need to be taken on how much of the administration could be open considering issues like the Official Secrets Act etc.,but that the underlining theme would be greater openness of the political leadership and the bureaucracy towards good governance.

The Prime Minister said that he hope to bring the draft Bill before Cabinet as early as in February this year after the Attorney General had made his recommendations on the legal aspects of the draft prepared by the Editors Guild and the FMM.

The draft Bill envisages the appointment of a Freedom of Information Commission that will oversee the implementation of the provisions of the proposed law, and the appointment of an Information Officer in public-funded institutions to receive requests from the public for official information.

Drawn from the experience of several examples of such legislation already in practice in several advanced democracies throughout the world, the Model Laws from the Commonwealth and Article 19, the proposed Bill nevertheless includes several exemptions that would exclude some data relating especially to national security issues, personal health records, trade secretes etc.

The draft had also been prepared after a careful study of the draft FOI drawn up by the Law Commission and the Government some months ago.

Minister of Mass Communications, Imtiaz Bakeer Markar, Attorney General K. C. Kamalasabayson, PC, Secretary to the Prime Minister, Bradman Weerakoon, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Charitha Ratwatte, Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, Dhara Wijetillake, Secretary to the Ministry of Mass Communications, Kumar Abeysinghe and Secretary to the Leader of the House, Naufel Abdul Rahuman represented the Government at the meeting.

President of the Editors Guild, Siri Ranasinghe and Sinha Ratnatunga represented the Guild. Waruna Karunatillake, Victor Ivan and Sunanda Deshapriya represented the FMM together with Rohan Edrisinha of the Law Faculty, Colombo University and Attorneys, Kishali Pinto Jayawardene and Asanga Welikala.

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