The Senate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has put a bill (in French) on access to information on its agenda, according to media reports confirmed by local activists.
Senator Moses Nyarugabo offered the bill and passage ahs been pushed by groups, especially the Collectif 24, a nongovernmental organization that coordinated a civil society effort to draft the bill. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
Some 20 other bills are prioritized on the agenda, according to a Radiokapi report and another, in MediaCongo.
Another media outlet, DigitalCongo, reported that Nyarugabo’s bill was declared admissible by the plenary of the Upper House of Parliament and sent to the political, administrative and legal committee for further consideration.
The bill has 51 articles divided into seven chapters relating to the scope and definition of concepts, the right to information, the procedure for access to information, the remedies , conservation obligations, proactive publication and dissemination of information, the final and transitional provisions, according to the article.
“During the plenary session at the People’s Palace, under the leadership of Senate President Leon Kengo wa Dondo, seven senators spoke to emphasize the merits of this bill that complements the legal arsenal of the DRC in terms of the right to information, one more instrument in the promotion of democracy in the country,” the DigitalCongo report said.
Nyarugabo is quoted as saying, “It is a right to know what is happening especially if the government does in its favor: program, plan projects, contracts. We want to go beyond the necessary information we receive from members according to their editorial line. ”
The developments on RTI come as police detained about 30 individuals at a pro-democracy gathering in Kinshasha, including journalists, generating objections from international journalism groups.
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