Abstract
The Government's Press Council Bill was passed by the Sri Lanka National State Assembly on 22 February with no votes against it. The opposition did not vote because their objections to the constitutionality of the Bill were not heeded. After some hesitation, the Constitutional Court had quickly ruled that the Bill did not infringe the guarantee in the Constitution of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) that ‘every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, including publication’. This meant that the Bill needed only a simple majority in the State Assembly.