{"id":229073,"date":"2022-09-12T13:38:53","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T08:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=229073"},"modified":"2022-09-12T13:39:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T08:09:17","slug":"rti-commission-directs-information-release-on-massive-marine-damage-caused-by-the-x-press-pearl-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rti-commission-directs-information-release-on-massive-marine-damage-caused-by-the-x-press-pearl-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"RTI Commission Directs Information Release On Massive Marine Damage Caused By The X-Press Pearl Disaster\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sri Lanka\u2019s Department of Wildlife and the Marine Environmental Protection Agency (MEPA), two key bodies tasked with state responsibility for handling the massive environmental loss caused by the fire on the <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=X-Press+Pearl\">X-Press Pearl<\/a><\/span> off Sri Lanka\u2019s coast in May 2021, have been ordered by the <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=RTI+Commission\">Right to Information Commission<\/a><\/span> to release post mortem reports of dead sea turtles following the disaster.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/nasty-nurdles\/nurdles-sri-lanka-x-press-pearl-cargo-ship\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-220787\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-220787\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nurdles-sri-lanka-X-Press-Pearl-cargo-ship.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"830\" height=\"507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nurdles-sri-lanka-X-Press-Pearl-cargo-ship.jpeg 830w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nurdles-sri-lanka-X-Press-Pearl-cargo-ship-300x183.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nurdles-sri-lanka-X-Press-Pearl-cargo-ship-768x469.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\" \/><\/a>Its sinking caused the worst environmental harm that Sri Lanka had seen in decades. Laden with chemicals, the leaking of poison into the sea caused unprecedented loss of marine life. A year later, mystery still surrounds events leading up to the fire, causes for the same, preventive action taken by state agencies and the Government\u2019s efforts to compensate fishermen who lost livelihoods.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Commission\u2019s Order was in response to two appeals filed by a journalist from Hambantota. Rahul Samantha Hettiarachchi who had asked Wildlife and MEPA for information concerning the environmental damage The two agencies had disclosed some information including the initial compensation paid to Sri Lanka by the Singapore based owners of the ship. But both had refused to release the post morten reports claiming that this would impact ongoing negotiations on what has become a major insurance case.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Wildlife Department had claimeda case as reason to refuse the information but not disclosed any other details. The appeal filed against that refusal by Mr RS Hettiarachchi on June 28<sup>th<\/sup> 2022 to the office of the RTI Commission was decided in his favour by the Commission on August 4<sup>th<\/sup> 2022. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In the separate appeal filed by him against MEPA, the Chairperson and Director General had responded that this is \u2018sensitive\u2019 information on which it was consulting with the Attorney General. But the Commission had raised the inability of both state agencies to raise a justifiable exemption under the RTI Act to decline the information, informing MEPA that \u2018sensitive\u2019 information is not a ground on which the Act allows to refuse information requests.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>MEPA\u2019s failure to process the request according to the RTI Act was contained in a hard hitting Order issued by the Commission earlier this month.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>MEPA had been severely rebuked for \u2018suppression of facts\u2019 as its Director General had alleged that it had not recieved the information request despite the journalist sending it by registered post.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Its conduct in asking for several postponements on the basis that it was discussing with the Attorney General also came in for criticism.<\/p>\n<p>Journalists <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/ceylonnews24.com\/news\/13075\/%E0%B7%80%E0%B6%B1%E0%B6%A2%E0%B7%93%E0%B7%80%E0%B7%93-%E0%B7%83%E0%B6%82%E0%B6%BB%E0%B6%9A%E0%B7%8A%E0%B7%82%E0%B6%AB-%E0%B6%AF%E0%B7%99%E0%B6%B4%E0%B7%8F%E0%B6%BB%E0%B7%8A%E0%B6%AD%E0%B6%B8\/\">reporting<\/a><\/span> on the Commission\u2019s decisions in the Sinhala media have pointed to the warning issued that both MEPA and the Wildlife Department will face prosecution under the Act if they fail to act according to the directive.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Up to now, no appeals have been lodged to the Court of Appeal against the Commission\u2019s decisions.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":220787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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