The government today said it welcomes all journalists to cover the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013 and that as a member of the Commonwealth, Sri Lanka remains fully committed to its values, including a free press.

Responding to concerns expressed over media access during the meet, the Task Force Secretariat for CHOGM 2013 stated that the Government of Sri Lanka looks forward to receiving applications from local and international media professionals for accreditation to cover the meet, to be held in Colombo in November

The online registration system is now available through the official CHOGM website, a statement said.

The process of accreditation of all international and domestic media is based entirely on the Commonwealth Secretariat guidelines, which have been followed at previous CHOGMs, Chairman of the Media/Publicity/ICT Sub-Committee of the CHOGM 2013 Taskforce, Charitha Herath said.

He stated that accreditation for international media will be reviewed by the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, in consultation with the CHOGM 2013 Taskforce Secretariat in Colombo while local media applications will be reviewed by the Ministry of Mass Media and Information.

“As the host country, Sri Lanka will be responsible for processing the visa applications of all accredited international media,” he said.
 
Local media applications will be reviewed by the Ministry of Mass Media and Information of Sri Lanka.
 
The Committee to Protect Journalists last week had written to Kamalesh Sharma, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, saying that Colombo has indicated that the Sri Lankan government intends to enforce stringent background checks on any foreign journalists covering the meeting.

Executive director of the CPJ, Joel Simon refereed to a document, recently released by the Sri Lankan government that said the authorities reserve the right to “exclude any person ... And impose additional conditions of entry to Sri Lanka ... Regardless of whether or not that person is accredited.”
 
However, the CHOGM 2013 Taskforce Secretariat in a release today said that the Government of Sri Lanka, as host of CHOGM 2013, “welcomes all journalists to Sri Lanka to cover this very important summit.”

“As a member of the Commonwealth of Nations for more than 60 years, Sri Lanka remains fully committed to Commonwealth values, including a free press.”
 
“Furthermore, we believe it will be an excellent opportunity for international journalists to get a first-hand look at the developments in post-war Sri Lanka,” the statement said.

It further said that the CHOGM 2013 Taskforce Secretariat will take every effort to ensure a quick, efficient and problem-free accreditation process for all media professionals.