Minister of Information and Broadcasting Dora Siliya announced that Government has approved the Access to Information Bill, a concept styled after the American and UK Freedom of Information Act – FOIA which is considered a critical component of a democratic dispensation and expected to drive transparency among civil servants and other public officers.
Siliya confirmed the development in a tweet that the bill was approved during the Cabinet meeting.The Information Minister said the bill is meant to promote proactive and organized dissemination of information to the public.
“I am happy to announce that finally Cabinet has approved the Access to Information Bill aimed at proactive and organized dissemination of information”. She said . The bill which has taken decades to be enacted has this year been approved by the Cabinet.
The need to enact the Freedom of Information bill became a requisite of Zambia’s democracy after the country moved in 1991 from a one party state to a multi party democracy. From 1991 to date, all successive governments have shied away from enacting this law as its believed that this piece of legislation would
The bill when enacted is expected to lead to the establishment of a Public Information Commission and define its functions; to provide for the right of access to information; to set out the scope of public information under the control of public authorities to be made available to the public via the media in order to facilitate more effective participation in the good governance, to promote transparency and accountability of public officers.
According to the model of the FOI act in the USA, it generally provides that any person has the right to request access to government and government agency records or information except to the extent the records are protected from disclosure by any exemptions or exclusions contained in the law.
The exemption and exclusions are expected to include classified information for national defense or foreign policy, internal personnel rules and practice, government trade secrets and confidential business information, personnel and medical file, law enforcement records and other Infomation considered sensitive and classified.
The media industry is expected to be the biggest beneficiary in terms of availability of information. Currently, public officers hide under the guise of classified or sensitive infomation whenever journalist request for information that would expose their incompetence or lack of probity.
All in all, like any other law, it has pros and cons, FOI regulation has been the biggest contributor to scandals that has been uncovered especially in the more advanced economies, this is believed to be the biggest benefit as it makes public officers be subjected to transparency reporting which eventually leads to use of public resources for their intended and appropriated purposes.
