Description

President Ranil Wickremesinghe during a meeting with heads of media institutions held at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo on 6th of January said that a new bill will be introduced to regulate social media and electronic media similar to the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) Act 2016 of Singapore. Responding to a question raised, the President noted that the existing legal framework on media regulation in Sri Lanka is only applicable to print media.
Previously in November 2020, then Minister of Mass Media Keheliya Rambukwella made a similar statement regarding a proposed Singapore-style regulatory framework for Sri Lankan websites purportedly to combat fake news and hate speech online. Media reports said that a consultative committee appointed by the Ministry of Mass Media has studied Singapore’s controversial Info-communications Media Development Authority Act (IMDA) and Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), to draft a new regulatory framework for Sri Lakan social media. Various Human Rights reports indicate that both POFMA and IMDA in Singapore have been used to silence dissent and restrict freedom of expression, As the protests against the previous government were heightened, and the government collapsed soon, the proposed bill was not introduced then. However, the proposal made by the President Wickramasinghe recently seems as a fresh attempt to introduce the same bill that the former government tried to introduce.