News
Govt. all out to steamroller OSB through Parliament
By Saman Indrajith
The government yesterday succeeded in commencing the Online Safety Bill second reading debate amidst the Opposition’s attempts to have it postponed.
An emergency vote was taken to decide whether to consider taking up the Bill for debate. The government mustered 83 votes, and only 50 Opposition MPs voted against the debate.
The SJB, TNA, SLPP dissident MPs, JVP-led NPP voted against the debate.
Moving the Bill for the debate, Public Security Minister Tiran Alles said that he had presented the Bill to Parliament last October. “There have been many discussions with both local and foreign stakeholders. There have been petitions before the Supreme Court challenging the Bill. The Supreme Court determination suggested several amendments to the draft Bill. We agreed to include those amendments.
In addition, members of the civil society, the Asian Internet Coalition and the UN country representative, also had discussions with me in this regard. Their opinions, too, have been considered in amending the draft Bill. This Bill is brought before the House to amend laws to prevent offences against women and children using the internet. In 2023 alone there were more than 8,000 complaints of incidents of abusing the internet in this country. There were 669 complaints against sexual harassment and 506 complaints against publishing naked photos on the net. These are only the complaints.
More than 100,000 nude photos were posted on the Internet during that year alone. There have been 687 complaints of defamation, 1,961 complaints of cyber bullying, 34 instances of threats, 88 instances of posts affecting national security, 457 instances of defrauding money. In addition, there are many other offences including 547 instances of stealing data,” Minister Alles said, adding that some MPs, their wives and children had also been abused in social media.
Earlier in the day, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena had to suspend sittings for a special party leaders’ meeting to decide whether the Bill would be taken for debate. Opposition and SJB leader Sajith Premadasa had requested that a special party leaders’ meeting be held to put off taking the Bill for debate although it was on the Order Paper for the day. Representatives of all opposition parties present at the meeting opposed taking the Bill but the government representatives insisted on commencing the debate. Finally, the Speaker decided to put the question for a vote before the House.
The Sectoral Oversight Committee on Media, Youth, Heritage and New Citizen on Monday (22) approved the Online Safety Bill, subject to the amendments suggested by the Supreme Court. Officials representing the Ministry of Public Security, the Attorney General’s Department, the Legal Draftsman’s Department, the Police and the National Secretariat of Non-Governmental Organisations attended the committee meeting. Opposition MPs Gayantha Karunathilake, Eran Wickramaratne and Chandima Weerakkody said that the Committee should put off the Bill without taking it up for debate as some of its contents needed to be further discussed. However, the Committee disregarded their opinion.
Text and Pic by Priyan de Silva
Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption (CIABOC) Ranga Dissanayake has questioned whether some promises contained in the National People’s Power (NPP) manifesto, A Thriving Nation – A Beautiful Life, could be fulfilled even if the government wanted to implement them.
Dissanayake raised the issue during a discussion following the release of the third biannual report on manifesto monitoring by the March 12 Movement, at the BMICH, on Wednesday.
He questioned whether the report had taken into account legal and institutional constraints affecting the implementation of certain pledges.
Citing the proposal to establish Anti-Corruption Investigation Offices in each district, Dissanayake said such offices could be established only with the agreement of CIABOC and that amendments to the Anti-Corruption Act would be necessary.
He also referred to the pledge to abolish the Executive Presidency, noting that successive governments had made similar commitments since 1994. He questioned whether there had been adequate consideration of where the powers vested in the Executive President would be transferred if the system were abolished.
On the proposal to establish a Public Prosecutor, Dissanayake questioned whether the Government intended to maintain the office alongside the Attorney General, who currently performs prosecution-related functions.
Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies (IRES) Manjula Gajanayake said Dissanayake’s remarks should be regarded as his personal views and not as Government policy.
Monitoring and Evaluation Consultants M. Thilakarajah and D.D. Mataharaarachchi presented the third-phase findings, covering January to June 2026.
The corruption case filed by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) against former Navy Commander, Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, and Yoshitha Rajapaksa was set for a pre-trial conference by the Colombo High Court.
The case was taken up before the Colombo High Court on Thursday (17), when the accused, who are currently out on bail, appeared before the court. After considering the submissions made, the court ordered that the case be called for a pre-trial conference.
The CIABOC had filed the case against the accused, alleging that a corruption offence was committed by sending Yoshitha Rajapaksa, son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, for training at the Royal Naval College in the United Kingdom despite him not having the required qualifications.
The Colombo Magistrate’s Court yesterday directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to conduct an investigation and submit a report on whether a statement made by former Minister Wimal Weerawansa at a political rally, in Anuradhapura, on September 12, amounted to contempt of court.
Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara, appearing for the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), made the request when a complaint filed against MP Namal Rajapaksa in connection with the Airbus issue was taken up.
Bandara also handed over to court a compact disc containing the relevant speech made by Weerawansa.
After considering the request, Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama directed the IGP to conduct an investigation into the matter and submit a report to court.
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