The Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI), along with its constituent bodies and affiliated media organisations, has issued an urgent letter to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, calling for immediate intervention to resolve critical issues threatening the institutional integrity of the Right to Information (RTI) Commission.
The letter—dated June 18, 2025—was signed by SLPI’s core constituents: the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka, the Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka, the Free Media Movement, and the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association. Additional signatories include affiliated organisations such as the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, the Tamil Media Alliance, the Federation of Media Trade Union Employees, and the South Asia Federation of Media Alliance.
In their appeal, the organisations underscore the vital role of the RTI Act No. 12 of 2016 in promoting transparency, accountability, and democratic governance in Sri Lanka. They emphasized that a functional and independent RTI Commission is essential to safeguard the public’s right to access information—a right that has been instrumental in exposing corruption, improving local governance, and upholding justice.
Among the most pressing concerns raised is the vacancy in the position of Chairperson of the RTI Commission. The role has remained unfilled since the resignation of the previous chair on March 4, 2025. This leadership void has significantly weakened the Commission’s operational capacity and delayed crucial decision-making processes.
Compounding the issue is the prolonged government delay in approving the recruitment of essential legal staff. Despite repeated appeals from early 2024 to the Presidential Secretariat and other relevant state bodies, the Commission continues to operate with only one legal officer handling a growing volume of appeals. This inaction, according to the letter, directly undermines key provisions of the RTI Act—especially Section 13, which grants the Commission the authority to recruit its own staff in consultation with the Minister of Finance, without interference from other line ministries.
The media groups also raised concerns regarding Section 16 of the RTI Act, which mandates the establishment of an independent Fund into which allocated budgetary resources “shall” be released. However, the Commission has yet to be granted a separate line item in the National Budget, limiting its ability to expand its human resource capacity. Nine years after its inception, the Commission now faces what the signatories describe as “severe institutional dysfunction.”
These structural deficiencies, the organisations warned, are eroding the effectiveness of the RTI framework and hindering the public’s access to timely and accurate information. They strongly urged President Dissanayake to act without delay in appointing a new Chairperson and to ensure the full implementation of Sections 13 and 16 of the Act.
“Strengthening the Right to Information Commission is not merely an administrative necessity; it is a fundamental step towards realising your commitment to good governance, promoting transparency, and deepening democratic values in Sri Lanka,” the letter stated. The media bodies stressed that decisive leadership at this moment would signal a strong commitment to empowering citizens and fostering a more transparent and accountable government.
