MEDIA FREEDOM IN SRI LANKA 2 Media Freedom in Sri Lanka - 2020 Media Freedom in Sri Lanka Released to concide with World Press Freedom Day 2021 May 03 Free Media Movement Media Freedom in Sri Lanka - 2020 3 Other published works by Free Media Movement Seetha Ranjanee (2011) Martyrs of the Freedom Of Expression in Sri Lanka Free Media Movement (2017) Blue Print for Media Reform Dr Sunil Wijesiriwardena (2018 May) Role of the Media to Transform the Collective Imagination ILO-IFJ-FMM (2019) Reporting on the forced labour and fair recruitment Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association (2019) Digital Media: Workers Survey Free Media Movement (2020) Digital Media Workers Survey 2020 Annual Report on Media Freedom in Sri Lanka 2020 © Free Media Movement - May 2021 1st Edition - Colombo Pages 36, Infographics 03, Table 03 ISBN 978-624-5909-00-1 No part of this report may be quoted in full or part, reproduced and distributed in any form including print, written or electronic media, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods and sales and distribution of counterfeit copies and adaptations without the prior written permission of the publisher. Researcher: Viranjana Herath (Attorney-At-Law) PhD. Scholar at South Asian University, New Delhi, India Cover, Layout & Infographic: Nalinda Seneviratne Published by Free Media Movement No. 96 Bernard Zoysa Avenue, Colombo 05 Tel. 011 236 8895 e-Mail: [email protected] www.fmmsrilanla.lk www.mediareform.lk 4 Media Freedom in Sri Lanka - 2020 Contents Message from Convener 6 1. Introduction 7 1.1 Research background 7 1.2 Objectives 8 1.3 Methodology 8 1.4 Scope and Limitations 8 2. Media Freedom of Sri Lanka- An Overview Prior To Year 2020 9 3. Media Freedom Status of Sri Lanka in 2020 12 3.1 Freedom of thought 12 3.2 Freedom of opinion 13 3.3 Freedom of speech 13 3.4 Freedom of expression 13 3.5 Right to the Freedom of information 13 3.6 Freedom of recording 14 3.7 Freedom of publication 14 3.8 Freedom of press 14 3.9 Freedom of broadcasting 15 3.10 Freedom of the internet 15 4. Categories and actions against media freedom of 2020 17 5. Other findings 22 6. Conclusion 24 Annexure 27 Media Freedom in Sri Lanka - 2020 5 Message from Convener he Free Media Movement, advocates for a socially the Open Society Foundation. Therefore, we would responsible free media culture and with a broad take this opportunity to thank the Open Society Tdemocratic vision for media freedom, engages at Foundation for its contribution. We greatly appreciate policy and operation levels to guarantee the right to the efforts of Viranjana Herath for the research and freedom of expression and the rights of journalists. preparation of this report in a short period of time. While the Free Media Movement intervened at We are also grateful to the ‘Media Freedom’ sub- various levels concerning violations of media freedom, committee appointed by the Executive Committee the absence of a formal collating of information on of the Free Media Movement. The committee an annual basis remained a shortcoming in the field. comprised of Seetha Ranjanee, Lasantha de Silva, Many groups and individuals proposed that the Free C. Dodawatte, Hana Ibrahim, Niranjani Roland, Media Movement take steps to meet this critical Lakshman Gunasekara and Ananda Jayasekara, need for an annual report to systematically assess who read the drafts of the report and enriched it and analyze media freedom violations in the country. with their inputs and ideas. Special appreciation to The Free Media Movement has been attempting to the members of the subcommittee and to the staff formulate this report for a long time and finally had members Bernard Edirisinghe and Infaz Issadeen for the opportunity to compile the annual report based their exceptional coordination! on the incidents of 2020. The Free Media Movement has also been able to publish a monthly monitoring Seetha Ranjanee report of incidents and this has been issued monthly Convener - Free Media Movement from January 2021. This annual report has been prepared in consideration of the tenfold facets of media freedom and will provide an overview of the state of media freedom in Sri Lanka in 2020. This report does not endeavour to assess or analyze the media freedom situation in Sri Lanka in 2020 since this is the first attempt in compiling this report. This report has been compiled in a very short period of time, in order to be ready for the release on World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2021. However, an assessment has been planned for future reports with the participation of a majority of stakeholders in the media sector. We are confident that your comments and suggestions will lead to further improvements and developments in future reports. The report is compiled and available in all three languages. The success of the Free Media Movement’s attempt to compile this report was due to the contribution of 6 Media Freedom in Sri Lanka - 2020 1. Introduction It has been a year since Ahnaf Jazeem, a poet and a teacher, has been detained without charge. 13 human rights organisations have expressed grave concern over the ongoing detention of Ahnaf Jazeem. www.theleader.lk edia freedom is very closely associated with democracy of the country. The research examines democracy. Countries that ensure greater media various threats and challenges against media freedom Mfreedom usually have strong political stability, and the process of assessing such incidents in the year. rule of law, efficiency in the government policy However, the status of media freedom of 2020 cannot process, regulatory quality and minimum corruption.1 be analyzed in isolation as it is attached to historical According to the UNESCO, media freedom is one of developments, factors and incidents. Accordingly, the crucial foundations of democracy, development the research study, “Media Freedom of Sri Lanka- and dialogue and a precondition for protecting and 2020” is an attempt to examine the existing status promoting all other human rights.2 Therefore, the of media freedom and its evaluating process and the status of media freedom of a country provides a vivid democracy of Sri Lanka. The research also provides picture of the level of democracy. some guidelines to evaluate the situation in the future. Whilst examining “media freedom” in any 1.1 Research background jurisdiction, there should be some consensus for the ambiguous terms. For instance, there is no concrete Against this backdrop, the research on “Media definition for ‘media freedom’. According to Freedom of Sri Lanka - 2020” highlights not only Britannica, media freedom is the freedom of various the status of media freedom but also the level of Media Freedom in Sri Lanka - 2020 7 kinds of media and sources of communication to Furthermore, it is important to note that the operate in a political and civil society. It extends the research includes any threat or challenge against traditional idea of freedom of the press to electronic media freedom orchestrated by either government media, such as radio, television and the Internet.3 or private parties. Since media freedom and The UNESCO states that to “promote the free flow media rights violation is not merely an act by the of ideas by word and image” is the backbone of the state or government only, there are also private media freedom.4 Accordingly, the research needs groups including big companies, civil groups and to adopt some clarifications on the terms - media ethnoreligious extremists that actively engage against freedom, media and journalist. media freedom. Therefore, any threat made by any Although the term “media freedom” does not party against the media freedom of Sri Lanka will be have a universally recognized definition, there is a examined. widely recognized consensus over the components of media freedom. Freedom of expression is the backbone of media freedom. However, it includes 1.2 Objectives several other components such as freedom of right to • Examining the status of media freedom of information, to hold an opinion and publication of Sri Lanka in 2020. ideas and opinion.5 In this research, ten components of media • Identifying the relationship between media freedom have been considered collectively. They freedom and democracy in the Sri Lankan include the freedoms of thought, holding an opinion, context. expression, speech, information, publication, • Identifying actions, forms and dimensions recording (text, photos, audio and video), press, against the country's media freedom and broadcasting and the Internet.6 Therefore, this assessing their impact research adopts media freedom as a collection of • Evaluating the indicators which are being these ten freedom components. applied to identify media rights violations in The term “media” is also complicated in the Sri Lanka existing digitalized world. Up until the year 2000, “media” generally consisted of four key media • Identifying suitable indicators to cover and industries such as print, broadcasting, music and find all activities against media freedom. cinema. Due to the rapid changes of technology (mainly the development of the internet) all features of the industry are subject to a facelift and various 1.3 Methodology novel platforms such as social media and online The research follows a mixed methodology that media have entered into the scope of the umbrella comprises both theory and empirical practices. The term – Mainstream Media.7 Therefore, the research theory aspect includes reviewing documents, articles examines the freedom of all kinds of media including and reports. Empirical practices contain interviews both traditional media and new media. and participatory observations. Manual methods and Identifying a journalist has also become an issue Microsoft software tools will be used for the analysis.