Media Forward 2025 was held from 24–26 November 2025 in Colombo, organised by UNDP Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Broadcasters’ Guild, Hashtag Generation, Factum, Verité Media and Politics, the Media Law Forum, the Free Media Movement, and the Sri Lanka Digital Journalists’ Association. LIRNEasia Research Fellow Ashwini Natesan joined as a panelist for the first session of the event, titled ‘Strengthening Coordination and Shared Accountability in Digital Spaces’. The other panelists were Senura Abeywardena (Head of Public Policy, Central Asia, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka at Meta), Ranga Kalansooriya, PhD (Asia Regional Advisor, International Media Support), Rajitha Mahanama (Sub Inspector, Computer Crime Investigation Division), and Saranee Gunathilaka, PhD (Director – Strategy and Operations, Hashtag Generation). The discussion was moderated by Prihesh Ratnayake (Research Specialist, Factum). Ashwini spoke on platform accountability, the Online Safety Act (OSA), and the impact of online harms on women and children. 
Media Forward 2025 was held from 24–26 November 2025 in Colombo, organised by UNDP Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Broadcasters’ Guild, Hashtag Generation, Factum, Verité Media and Politics, the Media Law Forum, the Free Media Movement, and the Sri Lanka Digital Journalists’ Association. LIRNEasia Research Fellow Ashwini Natesan joined as a panelist for the first session of the event, titled ‘Strengthening Coordination and Shared Accountability in Digital Spaces’. The other panelists were Senura Abeywardena (Head of Public Policy, Central Asia, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka at Meta), Ranga Kalansooriya, PhD (Asia Regional Advisor, International Media Support), Rajitha Mahanama (Sub Inspector, Computer Crime Investigation Division), and Saranee Gunathilaka, PhD (Director – Strategy and Operations, Hashtag Generation). The discussion was moderated by Prihesh Ratnayake (Research Specialist, Factum). Ashwini spoke on platform accountability, the Online Safety Act (OSA), and the impact of online harms on women and children. 
In an article published on 22 November 2025 in the Daily FT, Attorney-at-Law and LIRNEasia Researcher Sachini Ranasinghe raised concerns about the Online Safety Act (OSA) and its implications for free expression. She argues that Sri Lanka already had effective civil remedies for defamation, including cases involving online content, long before the OSA. Sachini highlights that disputes previously resolved through civil courts are now increasingly channeled through the OSA, shifting them into the criminal justice system and posing risks to free expression. Rather than criminalizing speech, she calls for strengthening civil defamation mechanisms by speeding up injunctions and reducing delays. Read the full article in the Daily FT. 
In August 2025, the Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and National Integration issued a public notice calling on all stakeholders to submit observations, comments, recommendations, and suggestions on amending the Online Safety Act, No. 09 of 2024, and the proposed amendments gazetted on July 31, 2024. In response, LIRNEasia submitted following comments, drafted by Professor Rohan Samarajiva, Founder and Chair of LIRNEasia. The comments emphasize that the framers of the Act had failed to grasp the unique and novel characteristics of social media, particularly in relation to the viral dissemination of content, limitations on freedom of expression, the vagueness of several offences defined under the Act, and the importance of aligning with existing laws where possible. 
Now that the fate of the “online safety” bill is in the hands of the many petitioners (45) and the three-judge bench that is looking at its constitutionality, we can look at the big picture of what the government is trying to do with this draconian legislation. It appears that even the committee that was formed in 2021 to advise on it has distanced itself from the final text. LIRNEasia Chair, Rohan Samarajiva gave a talk on this at the CMR-Nepal Journalism Academy in Kathmandu on 19 October 2023. The slides can be viewed below.