Throughout the period covered by this factsheet, violations of the right to freedom of expression and more generally, the rights of the people of Sri Lanka continued https://srilankabrief.org/wp-admin/post-new.php#with impunity. The state, the police, the military, extremist Buddhist groups and various mobs overtly or covertly backed by the authorities were the main perpetrators of these violations. The forms of violations included censorship, detention, assault, death threats, verbal as well as physical attacks and silencing by cooptation. The domestic mechanisms, like the Attorney General’s department, the Judiciary and the National Human Rights Commission, have being politicised to such an extent that they are either unwilling or unable to investigate and take remedial action. In this context, self-censorship has become the norm. The people’s right to information continue to suffer.
This factsheet in its totality provides a comprehensive picture of suppression of freedom of expression in Sri Lanka today. The ramifications of the resultant self-censorship needs to be dealt with separately.
Read full report as a PDF SLB Fact sheet Sep 2014 FOE