{"id":127497,"date":"2014-07-07T15:39:24","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T10:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=127497"},"modified":"2014-07-16T00:42:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T19:12:39","slug":"controlling-ngos-defence-ministry-acting-beyond-the-mandate-says-lawyers-collective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/controlling-ngos-defence-ministry-acting-beyond-the-mandate-says-lawyers-collective\/","title":{"rendered":"Controlling NGOs: &#8220;Defence Ministry Acting Beyond The Mandate&#8221; Says Lawyers Collective"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The Ministry of Defence does not enjoy any specific legal authority under any statute whatsoever to control\u00a0 freedom of speech and association of citizens,\u00a0 who act collectively through civil society organisations. In the circumstances, it is clear from the Press Release issued by the Defence Ministry has acted beyond its mandate&#8221;, says the Lawyers Collective<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Issuing a\u00a0<\/span>statement<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0the Cconveners of the Lawyers Collective,\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=JC+Weliamuna\">JC Weliamuna<\/a><\/span>\u00a0says &#8220;Analysis of the Communication shows that the Defence authorities appear to believe that the civil society organisations do not have \u00a0any right to conduct &#8220;press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases&#8221;. \u00a0All \u00a0governments that respect democratic values respect the rights of citizens to engage in such lawful activities. Only authoritarian regimes \u00a0prevent such democratic engagements. \u00a0If the Government of Sri Lanka is serious in preserving the democratic character of the country, it must respect its own Constitutional freedoms such as Freedom of \u00a0Expression and Association.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">&#8220;The communication of the Director of National Secretariat for NGOs \u00a0is an indication of the limited understanding of powerful Sri Lankan defense establishment on the civil liberties. The conduct of the MoD in issuing such communication \u00a0further strengthens the allegation that Sri Lanka has now become an Authoritarian State.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Difence-NGO.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-127498\" alt=\"Difence NGO\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Difence-NGO.jpg\" width=\"475\" height=\"497\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Difence-NGO.jpg 475w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Difence-NGO-286x300.jpg 286w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":48414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Controlling NGOs: &quot;Defence Ministry Acting Beyond The Mandate&quot; 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