{"id":176837,"date":"2017-04-30T13:37:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T08:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=176837"},"modified":"2017-04-30T13:37:03","modified_gmt":"2017-04-30T08:07:03","slug":"lies-and-deception-in-the-cabinet-approved-counter-terror-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/lies-and-deception-in-the-cabinet-approved-counter-terror-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lies And Deception\u2019 In The Cabinet Approved Counter-Terror Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sri Lankan Government has managed to \u2018trick\u2019 sympathetic members of the European Parliament into signifying approval for a draft Counter-Terror Act last week which is far worse than the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act<\/a> (PTA). The CTA was proposed to replace the PTA as a better alternative as promised by the Government.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Today\u2019s Sunday Times<\/i> carries a link to the \u2018leaked\u2019 Cabinet approved draft<\/a> now to be drafted as a Bill and a lead story by senior journalist Namini Wijedasa on the conflict between the draft CTA\u2019s prohibition on the \u2018gathering of confidential information\u2019 if it adversely affects public security and the Right to Information Act of 2016. The RTI Act leaves out \u2018public security\u2019 as a ground on which to deny information.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s attempt to \u2018trick\u2019 its critics comes from unclear offences in the initial draft being secretively brought back through different language. The old draft was leaked by the Sunday Times <\/i>last year but after a storm of shocked protests, its contents were revised to take out the worse parts. But those revisions are now no longer there. For example, the old offence of \u2018espionage\u2019 has been taken out but the actual content of the offence relating to \u2018confidential information\u2019 has been brought back under a different heading, linked to \u2018terrorist\u2019 or terrorist related offences.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Prominent legal commentator Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena points out that this exercise amounts to \u2018lies and deception.\u2019 Writing her regular column<\/a> to the Sunday Times,<\/i> she says that protections offered through the draft CTA for legitimate criticism in regard to the issue of \u2018confidential information\u2019 are totally inadequate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Protection is given for anything published in \u2018good faith\u2019 with \u2018due diligence\u2019 and \u2018for the benefit of the public in the national interest in registered print and electronic media or in any academic publication. Also, the protection will not apply if the publication is not \u2018registered\u2019 or is carried online.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the Cabinet approved CTA, it will be a terrorist offence to write or talk in a way that causes harm to the \u2018unity, territorial integrity or sovereignty of Sri Lanka,\u2019 It was under a similar provision in the Prevention of Terrorism Act that journalists had been jailed through politicized prosecutions in the past. Now a publication may qualify as an offence if the writer is found to lack good faith or did not observe due diligence or the publication was not in the national interest by a judge. These are \u2018safeguards that provide scant protection in a dysfunctional judicial and prosecutorial process\u2019, Pinto-Jayawardena has said. \u2018Provisions that are perfectly reasonable in functional Rule of Law systems assume sinister meaning connotations here because of that reality\u2019 she adds. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The draft CTA is due to be tabled in Parliament soon to meet the criteria for the consideration of the EU GSP Plus trade facility before the European Parliament in mid May. It has still not been formally released by the Government.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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