The government of Ghana has made few substantive changes in a Right to Information bill from last year that is widely considered too weak by FOI advocates
The bill was approved by the Cabinet June 6, but has yet to be made public. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) Officials say is still being worked on, according to a person who has asked about the bill’s status.
When revealed, the minister of information said at a recent public meeting, it will be little changed from the bill that died in Parliament last year.
The only known change will channel fees to government’s consolidated fund.
At a recent forum on RTI, the expected bill was strongly criticized, according to an article by the Ghana News Agency.
Mina Mensah, Africa Regional Coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said, “We will rather not have the Bill, than to have it passed as it is.”
The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) also recently raised doubts about the prospective bill, according to an article in the Independent.
Journalists in the Volta Region in early July expressed frustration at the “undue delay” in the passage of bill, Business News reported.
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