Malawi: Civil society organizations revive campaign for Access To Information (ATI) Bill

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have teamed up to revive the campaign to have the Access To Information (ATI) Bill enacted. This was agreed at a meeting held on 12 November 2009 at Korean Gardens Lodge in the Capital Lilongwe. The meeting, which was organized by MISA-Malawi in partnership with a human rights organization known as Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) aimed at soliciting input from various stakeholders on strategies to have the bill tabled in the National Assembly.

MISA-Malawi and other partners have been campaigning for the bill to be passed since 2003 but to no avail. Speaking at the function, CHRR Executive Director Undule Mwakasungura, said access to information is a human rights issue.

“Only with information can citizens fully participate in a democracy and actively exercise their rights which are also stipulated in the Constitution. Such rights include the right to vote, education, free expression, association and to hold political opinion,” he said.

Speaking at the same function, MISA-Malawi National Director Aubrey Chikungwa noted that the campaign for access to information had all along been associated with the media.

“Government and some members of the public believe it is…legislation that will benefit the media alone. This maybe one of the reasons why the bill has dragged for over six years,” he said.
Chikungwa concurred with CHRR Executive Director that access to information is a human rights issue and one that underpins all other rights. Among other resolutions that were made at the meeting, the participants agreed to revive a taskforce that was formed sometime back, engage members of parliament to sensitize them on the importance of the bill and to organize sensitization campaigns with members of the public, including traditional leaders.

Meanwhile, MISA Malawi is working in conjunction with the Ministry of Information to come up with a policy that supports the ATI bill. Thereafter, the draft bill will be forwarded to cabinet for approval, before it is taken to parliament.

- November 25, 2009 by MISA

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Source: www.misa.org (received via email alert on 25.11.2009)