Young journos seek UN intervention against new data protection law overriding RTI

Days ahead of UN Human Rights Council sessions to commence on Feb 28, the Sri Lanka Young Journalists’ Association has requested UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression Irene Khan to study Sri Lanka’s proposed data protection law.

The association has raised concerns over the Personal Data Protection Bill that was tabled in Parliament last month.

In a letter to UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression Irene Khan, they said the bill compromises the rights of journalists and limits the enjoyment of the right to information.

The new bill if passed by parliament grants power to conduct inquiries and issues punishments by an institution that is not a court of law, Committee Member of the association Tharindu Jayawardena told the Sunday Island.

“We are said to have a world class Right to Information (RTI) Act which was passed in 2016 by the former government. Now, this government is trying to reverse those benefits to an ancient terminology by including a clause on Official Secrecy,” Jayawardena said.

In a letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the Association pointed out that the most serious concern is that the draft law compromises the rights of journalists and limits the enjoyment of the right to information.

The Association highlighted that another serious concern is that it grants powers to conduct inquiries and issue punishments by one and same institution that is not a court of law.

Thereby, the association has called on Irene Khan to undertake an analysis of the draft bill and its implications on the rights and rule of law, and make interventions with the Sri Lankan Government to prevent any harmful effects.

The letter to Khan said: A draft law (bill) for Personal Data Protection was gazetted on 25th November 2021 and tabled in parliament on 20th January 2022.

The gazette and draft bill came to our notice quite late and article 121 of the constitution provides only a week to challenge a draft bill that’s tabled in Parliament at the Supreme Court. We attempted to challenge some provisions of the bill by e-filing a petition on 27th January and filing a hardcopy petition on 28th January, but both petitions were dismissed on the technicality of being delayed.

Subsequently, we sent a letter to all Members of Parliament, the Right to Information Commission, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, the Attorney General, and other relevant authorities about our concerns on 2nd February 2022.

In that letter, we have set out in detail our concerns and suggestions to improve the bill. Amongst the most serious concerns we have is that the draft law compromises the rights of journalists, limits the enjoyment of the right to information, and grants powers to conduct inquiries and issue punishments by one and same institution that is not a court of law.

Unconfirmed information received by us indicates that the parliamentary debate on the draft law may happen on 22nd February 2022 after which it is likely to be enacted as a law, which cannot be challenged in a Sri Lankan court.

We kindly request you to undertake an analysis of the draft bill and its implications on rights and rule of law and make interventions with the Sri Lankan government to prevent any harmful effects.