The Parliamentary Opposition led by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has decided to oppose the proposed Broadcasting Authority Bill, says Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.

Issuing a special statement today (05), he said that the executive council of the opposition led by the SJB unanimously decided to oppose and defeat the Broadcasting Authority Bill, which he claims is being brought forth by the incumbent government with the aim of “destroying the remaining part of the country’s democracy”.

He stated that they decided to take the maximum possible measures to defeat it inside and outside the parliament as well as through the courts. 

The Opposition Leader said that the fourth pillar in the democratic system is the free media and the entire 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.

However, the current government is ready to destroy the free media through such broadcasting authority bills, Premadasa charged, adding that when the then-government presented a similar bill in 1997, Supreme Court Judge A. R. B. Amarasinghe on May 5, 1997 said that the Act is against the Constitution. 

The Opposition Leader said that this bill that has been presented today is completely contrary to the country’s constitution, and also that it is harsh, anti-democratic, democracy corrupting, cancelles the people’s freedom and that all the media should come together to defeat this bill.

He said that this “authoritarian, obnoxious and idiotic” Broadcasting Authority Cill should be completely defeated and the free media should be victorious and be protected and that the death blows to the democratic system in this country should be defeated.

Premadasa alleged that 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 opposition leader added that there is no place for anti-democratic things like dictatorship and dictatorship in this country and that they are ready to do everything possible to safeguard democracy.