The executive council of the opposition led by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya made a special statement unanimously to oppose and defeat the Broadcasting Authority Act to be brought by the current government with the aim of destroying the remaining part of the country’s democracy and to take the maximum possible measures to defeat it inside and outside the parliament and in the courts. Opposition leader Mr. Sajith Premadasa said today (5).
The opposition leader said that the fourth pillar in the democratic system is the free media and the world accepts the free media as the fourth check and balance when the legislature, the executive and the judiciary strengthen the democratic system through checks and balances.
But the current government is ready to destroy the free media through such broadcasting authority bills and when the then government presented a similar bill in 1997, on May 5, 1997, Judge A. R. B. Amarasinghe said that the Act is against the Constitution. The leader of the opposition said that this bill that has been presented today is completely contrary to the country’s constitution, harsh, anti-democratic, corrupting democracy, serious, canceling people’s freedom and all the media should come together and defeat this bill.
The leader of the opposition, who said that this authoritarian, obnoxious and idiotic Broadcasting Authority Act should be completely defeated and the free media should win and be protected and said that the death blows to the democratic system in this country should be defeated.
The executive has held various banquets and made the judges very uncomfortable and holding such banquets at the moment when a very important judicial proceeding is underway is an act of insolence. The Leader of the Opposition further demanded.
Also, the opposition leader added that there is no place for anti-democratic things like dictatorship and dictatorship in our country and we are ready to do everything possible to save democracy.
