By Saad Filali Meknassi
The author is an ATI advocate from Morocco.
In Morocco, the Cabinet approved on July 31, 2014, the bill 31-13 on the right of access to information.
This quick move has surprised observers and civil society organizations advocating and monitoring ATI implementation.
The Moroccan network for ATI – REMDI – and two other NGOs published in the last days their statements[1] criticizing the non-inclusive process shadowed by the government in the preparation of this project of law and its substandard quality. REMDI (in Arabic): http://bit.ly/1kBaQKD Transparency Maroc (in French): http://bit.ly/1pDceex.
This third version published by the General Secretariat of the Government since the launch of this process two years ago is unfortunately the meagerest.
Behind the scenes, it is rumored that specific departments have blocked the second version and took charge to change its content. This brought a conservative vision and a limitation to the proactive stance of the Constitution adopted in 2011 that guarantees access to information (ATI) in its article 27.
The first analysis of this project gives the impression that the actual bill will limit access to public information instead of organizing its implementation. Generally, these are some of the main limitations of this bill:
- The exceptions are draftedvery broadly, allowing the mostrestrictiveinterpretations of thelaw.
- The Supervision Committee (the Information Committee as announced in the previous versions of the bill) of ATI has been removedand only partof his missionwas assigned to the Mediator (the Ombudsman in Morocco).
- Theadmissibility of requests of informationis restrictedto only Moroccan citizensthat show a direct interestand whichshouldfurtherspecifythe use theyintend to do withthe information requested.
- The requesters of information aresubject to criminalsanctionsif theyuse the information provided to other practices than those specifiedin their applications.
- The set of sanctions provided might stop public agents from releasing public information.
Civil society organizations have criticized this bill and the process used by the government to prepare this ATI law.
The main organizations that have advocated on ATI for the last decade and all international organizations interested in improving the quality of this bill have to advocate and lobby the parliament to make this bill cope with ATI international standards. The quality of this law will influence the current process of developing ATI legislations in other countries of the region.
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