Sri Lanka's RTI after one year since inception: Norway says long way to go on public awareness

Recognizing the significant achievement of Sri Lanka’s Right to Information (RTI) Act that has reached top global rankings and highest position in South Asia, Norway reiterated that it is important to bear in mind that there is a long way to go in terms of raising awareness on RTI.

Royal Norwegian Ambassador Thorbjorn Gaustadsaether, who took part as Chief Guest at an international RTI conference in Colombo today noted that right to access information coupled with the freedom of expression go hand in hand with the happiness and satisfaction of a country’s citizens.

“RTI laws are only as good as their users and they depend on public, the media, and civil society to make use of them in order to have an impact. If not, the Act as well as the constitutional right to information would be obsolete,” Ambassador Gaustadsaether stressed.

According to the Press freedom Index, compiled by "Reporters without Borders", Norway ranked number 1 in the list of 180 countries and in the World Happiness report, released annually by the United Nations, Norway came second.

The two day international seminar titled “Empowering Citizens with RTI”- marking the first year anniversary since Act came to effective is jointly organized by Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) and Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo.

Chairman of SLPI, Kumar Nadesan noted on his opening remarks that at this time, it is mostly members of the fourth state and lawyers who use the act mostly. “The full effectiveness of this law will be demonstrated only when a citizen exercise his or her legal rights to seek information from public authorities on matters that affect him or her,”

He observed that newspaper editors will need to play a major role in promoting the purpose of the application to their journalists where a story of any sort on public authorities will require factual information from them, and this will surely ensure their adherence to the principles of journalism and boost the credibility of the newspaper.