A recent freedom of information proposal by the government of the Bahamas is generating criticism as too weak.
Member of Parliament Fred Mitchell told The Tribune that the bill introduced Oct. 5 gives the government too much power over requests for information and limits judicial review.
“The Commissioner for Information can’t overrule the Minister’s certificate granted in section 25,” Mitchell said.
Section 25 of the Bill mandates that if a minister determines that a public record qualifies as exempt under the law, and he issues a certificate to the person requesting the information stating that the information is exempt, the minister’s decision cannot be overturned – not even by a court, summarized The Tribune.
Mitchell insisted that the clause denying a judicial review of a minister’s decision to withhold requested information will “not stand judicial scrutiny.” He was quoted as saying, “Courts loathe to accept ouster clauses.”
Mitchell also said, “Section 47 provides for an appeal of the decisions of the commissioner but not of the minister. Something is wrong there.” The section provides that a request for information denied by the Information Commissioner can be appealed in the Supreme Court.
Similarly, in an article in The Nassau Guardian, a former legal advisor to the ministry of finance, Rowena Bethel, says the bill is an almost verbatim copy of the 2007 Cayman Islands’ legislation and will not translate well in the Bahamian context. She particularly criticized the breadth of the exemptions.
Prime Minister Offers Bill
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham stated, “I am also pleased to table the Freedom of Information Bill which seeks to grant the public a right to access records held by public authorities, subject to exemption required to balance the right against the public interest in excluding certain governmental, commercial or personal information.”
He said that the legislation would create the Office of the Information Commissioner, whose members will be appointed by the Governor-General, serve for a five year term and be responsible to Parliament.
The bill provides definitions for information to include a written record, map, graph, plan, photograph, disc, tape, sound track or other devise on which data or sounds are embodied.
The prime minister said that the legislation does not apply to judicial function of a court or the holder of a judicial office; the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the Department of Immigration, Customs or the Financial Intelligence Unit in relation to their strategic or operational intelligence gathering.
“Records will be exempt from disclosure if the disclosure would injure the foreign relations of The Bahamas or reveal other confidential information of Cabinet; trade secrets, and in other specified circumstances,” he added.
The 31-page legislation would not be enforced until July 1, 2012.
Introduction of the bill came four years after the Free National Movement promised it in its 2007 manifesto.
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