{"id":154594,"date":"2015-12-16T15:35:59","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T10:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=154594"},"modified":"2015-12-16T15:43:08","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T10:13:08","slug":"cld-gives-120-points-on-rti-rating-to-sri-lankas-proposed-rti-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/cld-gives-120-points-on-rti-rating-to-sri-lankas-proposed-rti-act\/","title":{"rendered":"CLD Gives 120 Points On RTI Rating To Sri Lanka’s Proposed RTI Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sri Lankan Cabinet has approved a draft Right to Information (RTI) Act<\/span><\/a> which, if passed into law, would be among the strongest in the world. Although Sri Lanka is a relative latecomer in this area \u2013 being the only country in South Asia apart from Bhutan that has yet to adopt an RTI law \u2013 an assessment of the draft Act by the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) gives it a score of 120 out of a possible 150 points on the RTI Rating, which would make it the seventh strongest law in the world. At the same time, CLD\u2019s Analysis points to a number of areas where further improvements are recommended.<\/p>\n

\"Toby<\/a>

Toby Mendel<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe very much welcome the fact that Sri Lanka finally seems to be bringing to fruition a project that started nearly 14 years ago\u201d, said Toby Mendel<\/span><\/a>, Executive Director of CLD. \u201cAlthough the draft Act is robust, we hope that the relevant authorities will take advantage of this unique opportunity to introduce further improvements so as to create a really excellent RTI law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The draft Act has a number of positive features, including a broad scope, a narrow regime of exceptions and a good package of promotional measures. CLD\u2019s recommendations include the following:<\/p>\n