Indian Express: Colombo: Friday, April 24, 2015.
The Sri
Lankan cabinet has decided to urgently bring a bill to provide Lankans the
Right to Information (RTI) as in India and several other democracies.
Cabinet
spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told the media here on Thursday, that it will be
presented to parliament as an “emergency bill” under clause 122 of the Lankan
constitution.
Senaratne
said that the urgency was on account of the fact that bringing about an RTI Act
within the first hundred days of his rule was one of the major election
promises of President Maithripala Sirisena. Such an Act was to be part of
several measures to loosen the tight control over information exercised by
Mahinda Rajapaksa during his rule from 2005 to 2014.
No Go
Zones
However,
while giving Lankans the right to get information about State institutions, the
bill will specify certain “no go” zones. As per the press release on the
cabinet decision, there will be no obligation to part with information of a
private and personal nature. Information that might jeopardize national
security, territorial integrity and the economy of Lanka need not be given. The
State could withhold information that might harm Lanka’s relations with other
countries or reveal the trade secrets of a person or harm a fiduciary
relationship.
Information
that could jeopardize the investigation of a crime or be a contempt of court or
of parliament could also be withheld. The ban also covers information about
public examinations. On top of all this, a State institution can keep under
wraps information it feels must be safeguarded.
It appears
that the Lankan act may not be as liberal as its Indian counterpart. The Indian
RTI Act has many exemptions but it also says that “a public authority may allow access to
information if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm done to the
protected interest.”
Like India,
Lanka too will have an Information Commission. But its powers are yet to be
revealed.
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