Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama March 22 again voiced support for passage of a right to information bill and a broadcasting bill.
The president was quoted as saying he has no “fear of the Right to Information Bill… it is not a monster and I think that Parliament should pass it.”
Parliament in recent years has made little progress on RTI legislation notwithstanding nominal support from past presidents and legislators. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
Mahama mentioned the stalled bill in his State of the Nation speech Feb. 21, saying, “I will implement the Freedom of Information Act as soon as it is passed by Parliament.” (See previous Freedominfo.org report.) And he voiced support for it in October 2012 after being elected. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
In his recent remarks to journalists, the president spoke about the role of the media and supported self-regulation. “When we talk about Ghana being the model of democracy, a large part of the credit goes to the free and vibrant media landscape that we have and so we must continue to guarantee their freedom and independence at the same time,” according to Mahama.
Speaking to journalists, the president said that “there should be some form of self regulation that introduces responsibility in making society move forward and making society be democratic, we don’t injure the same society through our irresponsibility.”
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