Media & freedom of expression

MRA, Article 19 to hold Regional Access to Information Workshop

2001-07-30, Issue 32

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/2529

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Freedom of Information experts and activists across Africa will meet in Nigeria in September to map out strategies for establishing a regional network aimed at strengthening campaigns for the enactment and implementation of access to information laws throughout the continent.

The activists will be joined at the three day workshop, which will take place in Abuja between September 19 and 21, by experts on Freedom of Information laws from Asia, Europe and North America.

The workshop is being organized by ARTICLE 19, the Global Campaign for Freedom of Expression, based in London and Media Rights Agenda (MRA) in collaboration with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA), based in Cape Town. The meeting is being organized with support from The Ford Foundation.

The workshop will bring together 35 individuals and organisations which are either already active or which are interested in working in future on freedom of information issues to discuss and share advocacy and monitoring strategies and to explore networking and cooperation opportunities. They will also share perspectives regarding the role of access to information in promoting and protecting the full range of human rights in Africa. The participants will be drawn from Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone countries.

Other participants from outside Africa will come from Article 19; the Bank Information Center, a Washington-based World Bank watchdog with a very strong right to know focus; Partnership Africa Canada, an organization based in Toronto, Canada, which has conducted pioneering research on the role of illegal oil and diamond trade in fuelling conflict and corruption; the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), based in India; and the Access to Information Programme (AIP) in Bulgaria.

The specific objective of the workshop include:

· To strengthen the momentum behind campaigns to promote and implement freedom of information laws across sub-Saharan Africa;

· To enable civil society organisations in sub-Saharan Africa to share experiences and strategies in promoting and monitoring the implementation of freedom of information laws and to enhance their capacity to carry out effective advocacy and monitoring strategies as appropriate; and

· To assess the feasibility of establishing a network of civil society organisations on freedom of information in sub-Saharan Africa and map out the basis for any future cooperation and coordination.

The conceptual framework for the meeting will include issues as diverse as conflict prevention and resolution, the struggle against impunity, the role of private and multi-lateral corporations, poverty reduction strategies, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health as well as the relationship between Africa and global financial institutions such as the Bretton Woods institutions.

Once the conceptual framework has been established, the participants will move on to discuss and identify strategies for advocacy and monitoring, including ways of sharing information and experiences in the future, and the legal and institutional frameworks that can most effectively promote and protect openness and transparency.

The workshop is informed by the belief that “information is the oxygen of democracy” and that if people do not know what is happening in their society, or if the actions of those who rule them are hidden, they cannot take a meaningful part in the affairs of that society.

The initiative is designed to take advantage of a changing global climate in which freedom of information is increasingly high on the agenda in a wide range of countries.

There is a growing recognition internationally of the obligation on governments to provide information to their citizens through clearly defined constitutional and legal procedures. Since 1995, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Mr. Abid Hussain, has consistently emphasized in his annual report to the UN Commission on Human Rights the importance of access to information within national contexts.

Over 40 countries around the world now have freedom of information laws in one form or another that require the disclosure of government records and information to members of the public. Many others, especially in Eastern Europe, are in the process of adopting such laws.

However, within Africa, although the issue of freedom of information is now a topical one in varying degrees in countries like Nigeria, Uganda, Mali, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and there is a likelihood that some of them might be adopting freedom of information laws in the near future, the overall situation in Africa remains unimpressive.

In February last year, South Africa passed the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000, to become the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to enact a freedom of information law. But it is the only country in Africa at this time that has a freedom of information legislation. In Nigeria, a Freedom of Information Bill is pending before the National Assembly and has passed its second reading in the House of Representatives and awaiting a public hearing to be held in a few weeks by the Information Committee of the House.

Malawi has a constitutional guarantee of public access to government-held information, but it has no legal framework outlining procedures for giving effect to this guarantee. Mozambique and Tanzania also have constitutional protection for the right to information, but also have no legal procedures for the implementation of this right.

Following the passage of the Promotion of Access to Information Act in South Africa, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa has already established an Open Democracy Centre to monitor the implementation of the new Act and provide training for government officials and civil society organisations on freedom of information.

The workshop will provide participants an opportunity to explore in depth the range of means by which information and experience can be shared in future and to agree on a basis for future action and follow-up activities, including creating any capacity needed for this to take place.

It will also create the basis for new and broader alliances within the region and with international participants to be strengthened in tangible ways. This would involve some particular areas or issues where cooperative action will be agreed upon.

During the meeting, a model Freedom of Information law drafted by Article 19 will also be circulated and discussed along with a discussion paper on comparative standards on access to information that have developed in different spheres of political, economic and social life that identify principles which apply in all spheres and which could therefore be seen as a common "bottom line" in all activities and campaigning efforts.

For further information, please contact:

Edetaen Ojo
Executive Director
Media Rights Agenda
Tel. & Fax: 234-1-4930831
E-mail: edet@mediarightsagenda.org

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