3 October 2006
IFEX MEMBERS CELEBRATE RIGHT TO KNOW DAY
IFEX members joined dozens of free expression activists around the world last week to celebrate Right to Know Day and promote the right to access information. Since 2002, Right to Know Day has been held each year on 28 September to raise awareness of every individual's right to know how elected officials are exercising power and how public funds are being spent.
In Lagos, Nigeria, Media Rights Agenda convened a workshop on 22-23 September 2006 that brought together 30 civil society groups to share their experiences of campaigning for access to information laws.
Participants included representatives of the Media Foundation for West Africa, the West African Journalists Association, the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building, and the African office of the International Federation of Journalists.
Workshop participants issued a declaration calling on African governments to adopt access to information laws. They also agreed to establish a regional Freedom of Information Centre in Africa, which would act as a clearinghouse to support organisations' campaign efforts and foster collaboration.
In Namibia, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) issued a statement urging governments in Southern Africa to speed up the process of passing access to information laws. So far, South Africa is the only country in the region that guarantees citizens the right to demand information held by government bodies.
In Colombia, the Institute for Press and Society (Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, IPYS), held a roundtable discussion with journalists and media executives in Bogotá, where it called on the media profession to provide coverage of Right to Know Day and focus attention on access to information issues.
PROBIDAD marked Right to Know Day in Honduras by taking its message to a local school, where it spoke to students about the importance of access to information and provided teachers with educational materials and publications for further study on the issue.
Around the world, a growing number of governments are passing access to information laws, a recent study by Privacy International has found. There are now 68 countries that have such laws, over half of them adopted in the past decade. Another 50 countries have draft laws pending.
A study by the Open Society Justice Institute confirms the importance of access to information laws in strengthening democracies. It finds that countries with access to information laws performed better in providing government information than those with no law or with administrative provisions instead of a law.
Interestingly, countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Armenia, Mexico, and Peru outperformed more established democracies such as France and Spain in answering citizens' requests for information.
The study also found that governments are most responsive when non-governmental organisations play an active role in promoting access to information as a right.
"[Access to information] is essential for public participation," says Privacy International's David Banisar. "The public is only truly able to participate in the democratic process when they have information about the activities and policies of the government."
Visit these links:
- Right to Know Day: http://www.foiadvocates.net/index.php
- MRA Workshop: http://www.foiadvocates.net/map_2006/nigeria.php
- MISA: http://www.misa.org/
- IPYS: http://www.ipys.org
- ARTICLE 19's Model Access to Information Law: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/standards/modelfoilaw.pdf
- Privacy International: http://www.privacyinternational.org/foi/foisurvey2006.pdf
- OSI Justice Initiative: http://www.justiceinitiative.org/db/resource2?res_id=103424
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