Fernando v. the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and Others

For many years the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation's (SLBC's) Education Service (originally, the School Service) broadcast educational programmes intended primarily for students in the formal education system based on school curricula and largely exam-oriented. In June 1994 the SLBC launched the Non - Formal Education Programme (NFEP) of its Education Service dealing with a variety of topics such as human rights, ethnicity, sociology, legal and medical issues, arts and culture, politics, current affairs, the environment, behavioural science, history, archaeology, literature, drama, women's rights and pre-school teacher training. It was not a collection of irregular, sporadic or infrequent programmes but planned to cover a long period with a regular schedule of programmes. The participation was not restricted to SLBC staff and specially invited experts and resource persons, but extended to listeners as well. The petitioner had taken part in discussions on several programmes concerning current affairs, human rights and ethnic issues and had also asked questions as a listener from various resource persons live on several programmes.