Bringing the Right to Information within Freedom of Speech; Possibilities and Challenges P.A.Niroshan Pathberiya Lecturer University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka In the backdrop of the Right to Information Act No.12 of 2016, the Sri Lankan society is observed awakened from its “cryosleep” concerning the right to receive information. Regardless of the fact that Sri Lanka lags behind its contemporaries – Bangladesh and India, for instance – in the legal timeline when it comes to instituting the right to access information, this initiative is undeniably one of the fundamental features that contains the potential of empowering the common man and democracy. However, a number of cases filed in the Supreme Court of Sri Lank before the Act initiates a notion that the right to information could have been developed alongside the freedom of speech established under the Article 14 (1) (a) of the Constitution. Hence, this paper, reviewing cases (both local and foreign) prior to the Right to Information Act, and the 19 th Amendment 1 to the Constitution, examines as to what extent could the Article 14(1) (a) have been availed to assure the right to receive or access information, and the role played by the Right to Information Act, and Article 14 A in this regard. Reception of information has been perceived as an essential concomitant of freedom of speech. In considerable instances, freedom to access and receive information has been treated as an indivisible and inextricable segment of the freedom of speech. As discussed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – which marks a prominent milestones in the history of human rights – freedom of speech entails the right “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas” 2 . The First Amendment to the US Constitution 3 too, as it was held in Kleindienst v. Mandel 4 , protects “the right to receive information and ideas” 5 . In India, Union of India v. Association for Democratic Reforms and Another 6 is one of many cases that recognized right to receive information as an essential subset of a citizen’s right to freedom of speech and 1 which introduced right to information under section 2. (Article 14 A of the Constitution) 2 Article 19 – (Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948) 3 Amendment I : “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” 4 408 U.S. 753 (1972) 5 Ibid., 763 6 2002 AIR 2112; 2002 (3) SCR 294