The Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA) has called for the immediate withdrawal of the draft Bill to establish a Chartered Institute of Media Professionals, warning that the legislation as drafted would entrench political control over the media rather than protect editorial independence.
In a statement issued on Sunday and reported by Newswire on Wednesday, the association acknowledged that the media community had long debated the need for an independent professional body, but said the government’s proposal — unveiled on June 5 — revealed “an agenda rooted in media suppression.”
The SLWJA flagged several provisions in the draft Bill that place the new authority under direct government control. These include full powers for the Minister of Media to appoint an Interim Council; broad disciplinary powers for the authority to investigate “professional misconduct” and suspend journalists; and monopoly powers for the Minister to make regulations.
The Association also took issue with the Bill’s definition of “media professionals,” which sweeps in writers, editors, announcers, publishers, owners, managers and camerapersons — bringing all of them under the proposed authority’s disciplinary reach. SLWJA argued the structure would create “a police to punish journalists” rather than an institution to promote professionalism, and warned that the requirement for ministerial approval before the body can receive foreign aid further undermines its independence.
The Association’s intervention adds a domestic professional-body voice to scrutiny of a Bill that the government has framed as a standards-setting measure. The legislation, gazetted on June 5 by the Ministry of Health and Mass Media, would establish the Chartered Institute as a corporate body empowered to enrol qualified journalists, hold examinations, and enforce a code of conduct. Until an elected Governing Council is formed, an Interim Council appointed by the Minister would oversee the body’s establishment.
The statement also tied the Bill to a broader pattern of pressure on the media. The SLWJA noted that the government was simultaneously using the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Official Secrets Act against artists, writers and journalists, citing recent arrests of Tamil singers and youth, the seizure of Tamil writers’ books, and the summoning of editors who had exposed government misconduct to the CID.
“The winds of state suppression chasing journalists and media owners will only grow stronger if this authority is implemented under government control,” the Association said.
The SLWJA called on the entire media community — Sinhala, Tamil and English — to unite in demanding a regulatory authority that operates within an independent framework, free from state interference. The intervention is its most pointed media-freedom statement since the April 24 letter to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake accusing his media advisor of assaulting journalists at a peace walk, and lands as Sri Lanka remains at 134th in the Reporters Without Borders 2026 World Press Freedom Index.
The Bill requires parliamentary approval before becoming law. No timeline has been set for the second reading.
