1 December 2004
ARTICLE 19 HELPS PROMOTE ACCESS TO INFORMATION IN MALAYSIA
In Malaysia, free expression advocates are coming together to campaign for access to information legislation, thanks in part to the efforts of ARTICLE 19. The IFEX member recently helped organise a groundbreaking workshop in Kuala Lumpur in which civil society groups agreed to forge a coalition to promote citizens' rights to obtain government information.
In September 2004, ARTICLE 19 and its regional partner Forum-Asia held a workshop which brought together 65 advocates representing human rights groups, academics, grassroots community organisations and professional associations. They agreed that access to information legislation was vital in Malaysia, where government is prone to "excessive secrecy," and they endorsed a Statement of Principles for access to information in Malaysia, which has been translated into Malay, Mandarin and Tamil.
Participants also agreed to form a broad coalition of organisations to campaign for an access to information law rooted in the Statement of Principles.
The Statement is available here: http://www.cijmalaysia.org/Display_story.asp?ID=25
Visit:
- ARTICLE 19: http://tinyurl.com/6h6yo
- Forum Asia: http://www.forumasia.org/index.html
- SUARAM: http://www.suaram.net/
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