{"id":147105,"date":"2015-07-08T03:28:40","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T21:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=147105"},"modified":"2015-07-31T02:15:59","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T20:45:59","slug":"bond-scam-ranil-goes-against-his-uncles-wish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/bond-scam-ranil-goes-against-his-uncles-wish\/","title":{"rendered":"Bond Scam: Ranil Goes Against His Uncle&#8217;s Wish"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sri Lankan Prime Minister <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ranil+Wickremesinghe&amp;x=15&amp;y=3\">Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/a><\/span>, once a press freedom campaigner, now wants to punish media institutions under\u00a0the Section 22 of the Parliamentary (Powers and Privilege) Act, is clearly against the Colombo\u00a0Declaration on Media Freedom and Social Responsibility.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_103420\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Colombo-declaration.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-103420\" class=\"wp-image-103420 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Colombo-declaration.jpg\" alt=\"Strength in unity: The revised Colombo Declaration on Media Freedom and Social Responsibility was signed last Wednesday by Ranjit Wijewardene (Newspaper Society), Uvindu Kurukulasuriya (Free Media Movement), Sanath Balasuriya (Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association), and Sinha Ratnatunga (Editors' Guild). Kumar Nadesan, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Press Institute was also present.| Sunday Times Photo Caption\" width=\"350\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Colombo-declaration.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Colombo-declaration-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-103420\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Strength in unity: The revised Colombo Declaration on Media Freedom and Social Responsibility was signed by Ranjit Wijewardene (Newspaper Society), Uvindu Kurukulasuriya (Free Media Movement), Sanath Balasuriya (Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association), and Sinha Ratnatunga (Editors&#8217; Guild). Kumar Nadesan, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Press Institute was also present.| Sunday Times Photo Caption<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Colombo Declaration which was signed by the Prime Minister&#8217;s own uncle, the chairman of the Newspaper Society, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ranjith+Wijewardene&amp;x=11&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ranjit Wijewardene<\/span><\/a> along with Uvindu Kurukulasuriya (Free Media Movement), Sanath Balasuriya (Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association), and Sinha Ratnatunga (Editors&#8217; Guild) said; &#8220;The provisions in the Constitution seeing out restrictions relating to parliamentary privileges should be removed as this is constitutes an unnecessary privilege conferred on members of parliament and is not reflected in modern standards relating to the right to freedom of speech, expression and information. The Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act (1953) should be returned to its original position and consequent amendments to the Act should be specifically repealed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/maithripala-sirisenas-100-day-work-programme-detailed-diary-description\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The 100 day programme<\/span><\/a> promised \u201cimmediate and long-term measures \u2026 to safeguard the independence of media personnel and institutions\u201d, and that the \u201cright to freedom of thought and expression will be strengthened\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>However in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/bond-scam-ranil-says-media-and-cope-chairman-guilty-and-punishable\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">a letter addressed to Secretary General of Parliament<\/span><\/a>, the Prime Minister said both former Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=DEW+Gunasekara&amp;x=9&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">DEW Gunasekera<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">and certain media institutions should be penalised under Section 22,\u00a0of the Parliamentary (Powers and Privilege) Act\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">for reporting COPE draft report on the alleged <\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=BOND&amp;x=14&amp;y=3\">bond scam<\/a><\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">In the letter Wickremesinghe has specifically criticised the Sunday Times which belongs to his uncle Ranjit Wijewardene.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">The Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka, The Editors\u2019 Guild of Sri Lanka, the Free Media Movement and the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association were the joint signatories to the Colombo Declaration of 1998, that was revised in 2008 and accepted UNESCO\u2019s Windhoek Declaration that asserts that the right to a free press as a fundamental right of the people and recognised the fact that the Sri Lankan Government is a signatory to the Colombo Declaration on Media, Development and Poverty Eradication which includes the promotion of a free, pluralistic and independent media committed to social justice and development.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":147108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,6980,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-sri-lanka-parliamentary-elections-2015","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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