Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure - Harin Fernando says that a there is a programme to provide a free smartphone equipped with an easy call mobile package to every journalist in the country.

A training programme will be initiated for members of the Foreign Service, Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says.

Frontline Socialist Party's polit-bureau member - Kumar Gunaratnam has been further remanded.

If the proposed hate speech laws existed in 2012, most of the religious and civil leaders who played a prominent role in forming the UNFGG will still be in jail, Keerthi Tennakoon, Executive Director of Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) and Centre for Human Rights (CHR) said.

The number of journalists held hostage during this year has alarmingly increased than the year before, according to an international media watchdog.