Top parliamentarians in Ghana are being quoted as questioning the degree of public support for a right to information law but also as promising passage in 2016.
The comments emerged in a July 8 news report that was based on accounts of pro-RTI activists who met with Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho; the former Minister for Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga, and some members of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. Accompanying members of the RTI Coalition was African Union Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, Pansy Tlakula.
Those attending charactized the officials’ refrain as being: “The people don’t want the RTI law.”
However, Tlakula is quoted as saying that she and members of the RTI Coalition were able to get commitments from the Speaker and members of Parliamentary Committee that the RTI bill would be passed before the expiration of the current term of Parliament in 2016.
“There is a commitment to pass the Bill in this term. And also there are contentious issues to be resolved,” she is quoted as saying.
Mina Mensah, co-ordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Africa Office, said the Coalition was informed that the bill had been sent to the Attorney-General’s Department for further amendments that would incorporate Coalition proposals. She indicated hope that the African Union Model Law on Freedom of Information would be taken in consideration when the RTI Bill was passed.
The Coalition has been critical of the draft law, saying it needs substantial strengthening.
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