Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2020-09-21

Prohibition of Obscene Publications Bill

- Publication of obscene publications produced through information technology and other means using children has increased rapidly during the recent past. Although provisions are contained in the Penal Code and the Obscene Publications Ordinance to take action relating to the said matters, it has been found that those provisions are inadequate to deal with the current circumstances. Therefore, as a remedial measure, a document has been prepared by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), on the advice of the Attorney General incorporating the information required to draft a new Bill, and accordingly the proposal made by the Minister of Justice to instruct the Legal Draftsman to draft a new bill based on the said document, was approved by the Cabinet.