By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
The Right to Access Information (RAI) law is a landmark legislation that prominently stands as a symbol of the public’s ‘right to know’ within the context of press freedom in Sierra Leone. Passed in 2013, it provides for the disclosure of information held by a public authority or persons providing services for them and for other related matters.
This law basically seeks to protect the right to access information by everyone. This implies that everybody in Sierra Leone enjoys the benefits of this contemporary legislation.
Information, according to this law, includes any material, regardless of its physical form or characteristics such as a book, plan, map, drawing, and film, pictorial or graphic work, among others. Whatever its nature, everyone must access this sort information especially where this information is necessary for the enforcement and protection of any right.
As the citizenry yearns for an unfettered flow of information in society, it is the prevalent political system that determines this flow, thus lending credence to the credo: The press takes the form and coloration of the socio-political structures within which it operates.
Sierra Leone, being a democratic order, in spite of the weaknesses associated with its current system, takes pride in a liberal press that performs important functions in society - Information, education and entertainment. Media institutions service the political system by providing information, discussion and debate on public affairs, enlightening the public and safeguarding the rights of individuals by serving as watchdog against government, among others.
Since the ‘right to know’ is a highly cherished one in a liberal democracy, the RAI law contains a fundamental provision that provides for proactive publication of information by public authorities and private bodies. This aspect of official publication of information can be achieved through records keeping as well as appointment and training of public information officers. These information officers must be attached to all public agencies that should manage information and make it readily available on demand by a researcher, journalist, academics or any other person with a legally established interest in the information kept or reasonable expectation of use.
Besides, the state is also obliged, under this law, to facilitate access to information, ensure transparency and accountability and take effective measures to improve on archives and annals. The same law makes it as an offence for any person to willfully deny access of any other person to any information or record or to obstruct compliance by a public authority of any of its obligation under this law.
Making it a penal offence for the failure to dispense obligations imposed on any public authority under the RAI places emphasis on the extent to which information is a highly valued commodity in any society, in spite of its sociopolitical configuration. Information is inextricably linked with the fight against vices, particularly corruption, which undermining state governance in contemporary societies.
To add weight to the interdependence between information and the fight against corruption, US Supreme Court judge, Justice Louis Brandeis, was quoted in an article titled: ‘Communication and Good Governance’, saying that ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant.’ In his statement, the learned judge metaphorically refers to information as the ‘sunlight’ that will not tolerate vices to occur in a decent and civilized society.
Sierra Leone and conventions that uphold press freedom
Sierra Leone is a sovereign member in the world community of nations, notwithstanding its economic status. Sovereignty, in political context, means freedom from external control, capacity to enter into relations with other states and exercise supreme authority within the state. In line with her sovereign status, Sierra Leone has signed and ratified several declarations, treaties and conventions that guarantee the right to freedom of expression and of the press. These international agreements include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966; and the African Charter on Human and People’s rights, 1981. These historic documents contain provisions that are key to information flow in any society. Although the UDHR is not legally binding on states, it’s the foundation document for other human rights instruments that followed it.
The domestication of these human rights instruments is evidenced by the enactment of the Sierra Leone Constitution in 1991 and the RAI law, notwithstanding the existence of laws that are reasonably justifiable in a democratic society to regulate the press for the sake of professionalism. The said constitution contains a fundamental provision that confers liberty on the press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media to be free at all times to uphold the fundamental objectives in the constitution and to highlight the responsibility and accountability of government to the people. In a bid to realize this objective, another provision which guarantees the right to own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions are also found in the supreme law of the land.
The laws that regulate press freedom, including defamation, sedition, false publication, among others, are relevant to civilized societies based on the argument that freedom without restriction is no freedom as unrestricted freedom can interfere with the rights of another man. This legal and philosophical argument was bolstered by one of the recommendations of the Commission on Press Freedom popularly known as the Hutchins Commission named after its head, Robert M. Hutchins. The commission was set up after the Second World War and it recommended to world leaders a “free and responsible press.”
Both provisions place the media at the Centre of social, economic and political interactions routinely carried out within the state. The media checkmate excesses and ensure that duty bearers in the public and private sectors stay within the confines of the policy and legal framework permitted by the state.
Exploring the need for review
In as much as the enactment of the RAI law is appreciable, it equally should be noted with sharp eyes that some provisions in it tend to defeat the purpose of its enactment. Some of these provisions include restrictions on access to information regarding the country’s international relations, economic interests, law enforcement, commercial interests, historical records, and national security and defence. These restrictions in totality constitute valuable information needed by the public to carry on their normal businesses.
Also worthy of mention is the clause on ‘fees notice’, which says a public authority should charge a specified amount of money to be paid by the information seeker. This clause places the custodian of the information in an undue advantage. It could be very easy for unscrupulous public officers to hide behind the cloak of exorbitant price to shield the information sought, especially by journalists in a country characterized by media poverty. Media practitioners are one of the most important beneficiaries of the RAI law as gatherers and disseminators of information. And many journalists have expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of public officials with regards access to information.
Similarly, a visible structural deficiency also exists in most government agencies as they lack information officers to manage information and release it on demand.
However, several promises have been made by the requisite authorities to train and post information officers to ministries, departments and agencies to operationalize the RAI law.
Chairman, Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC), Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, told Politico that most MDA’s still grapple with compliance challenges especially with regards the Proactive Disclosure scheme. He however added that the Commission still engages the relevant institutions by providing them with the advantages of proactively publishing information.
“If you give something in a hurry, it may not pass some aspects of gate keeping thereby raising questions of accuracy. When you manage, package, and send information out there, it means you are controlling the narrative,” Dr Shaw.
(c) 2019 Politico Online
