-As CEMESP announces launch of awareness project
Most of the Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made to public institutions have not been honoured to date, a statement from the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding said in Monrovia on Saturday.
“We have continued to observe a very low trend in submission of requests by the public as well as the response mechanism from public information holders,” according to the group.
CEMESP Executive Director, Mr. Malcolm W. Joseph told a news conference that there is the need for authorities of these institutions “to ensure that citizens have access to information as enshrined in the freedom of information law of Liberia.”
The FOI law enacted into law in Liberia back in 2010
In a statement, CEMES said the relationship between the public and duty bearers as custodians of information is not holding the FOI law in deserving respect.
“This has grave implication for rule of law where gossips and opacity in fiscal matters and service provision trigger conflict to exacerbate poverty,” the CEMESP Executive Director statement said.
He said CEMESP has begun a project to provide technical support to the Information Commission as part of the USAID INTERNEWS Project “to rise to the occasion where accountability and transparency matters most of peace and democratic consolidation, we are here to reinvigorate in spirit and commitment to reaffirm our trust in the FOI Law.”
According to Mr. Joseph, this will create the opportunity for stakeholders in the FOI infrastructure including media, Public Information Officers and the IIC
FULLTEXT OF CEMESP STATEMENT
PRESS STATEMENT
Reigniting Media Synergy to Rekindle the Application of the Liberian FOI Law
Delivered By: Malcolm W. Joseph, Executive Director, Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding
June 8, 2019
Colleagues all!
I greet you in the spirit of media fraternity. We must remain engaged in supporting our path to deepening good governance and ensuring a sustainable democracy in Liberia.
Today, we want to speak to you on the need to ensure that citizens have access to information as enshrined in the freedom of information law of Liberia.
The notion of rekindling FOI might tend to create the impression that we have lost the course in implementing the Freedom of Information Act that we strove to have passed.
While we all recognize the role of the office of the Independent Information Commission, established with the passage of the FOI law to ensure that there is a body to facilitate the submission of information requests by the public and response mechanism by public institutions, this recognition seems not be matched by our actions.
There are too many gray areas and shortfalls in the demand and supply trend of information requested by the public and we cannot afford to have the law as a paper tiger.
As part of the USAID INTERNEWS Project to create the opportunity for stakeholders in the FOI infrastructure including media, Public Information Officers and the IIC to rise to the occasion where accountability and transparency matters most of peace and democratic consolidation, we are here to reinvigorate in spirit and commitment to reaffirm our trust in the FOI Law.
We have continued to observe a very low trend in submission of requests by the public as well as the response mechanism from public information holders.
It could be assumed that many people are not making use of the complaint mechanism of the IIC.
Notably, journalists and media entities have exceeded all other sectors in seeking redress. According to the Independent Information Commission, about 30 percent of requests or complaints it has received and processed emanated from journalists or the media which revolved around accountability issues.
Women NGO secretariat is second in ranking to media in complaint filing and no hearing could be convened even as the requested issues were validated by the IIC. The Women NGO Secretariat reported twelve cases which represents 25 percent of all requests made. However, none of the requests has been addressed.
According to the IIC, the change in the leadership of the Women NGO warrants “rewriting their complaints”.
There is an indication that grassroot CSOs have been curious about how Ebola resources were utilized and filed FOI request for documents that could not be provided. The cases have not been handled because the respondents and complainants did not come for hearing. The issue of cost implication in seeking FOI redress by county based residents has been another eye-opener to some of the wider application challenges of the law. The IIC and partners have to learn from this resource limitation and certainly information sharing towards the decentralization of the application of the law.
Also worth noting: The Liberia Media Development Program FOI Investigative Reporting Program of 2017 developed a tracker whereby journalists from across Liberia filed close to One hundred FOI requests on mostly accountability, policy and service delivery issues. The status of these request is still in want of actions-little or no disclosure. Only five of these requested pieces of information were acknowledged by the respective entities. Regrettably, eighty percent of the requests were submitted but the receiving institutions have failed to acknowledge receipt.
So we have come to show that there is a basis of measuring the dis-equilibrium between the demand and supply side of the law. The relationship between the public and duty bearers as custodians of information is not holding the FOI law in deserving respect. This has grave implication for rule of law where gossips and opacity in fiscal matters and service provision trigger conflict to exacerbate poverty.
This is why we at the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP) have been engaging the Pubic Information Officers and Public Relations Officers. They are supposed to be in various ministries, departments and agencies- as first point of contact- when a member of the public files an FOI request to aid the disclosure process. We are in touch with the PIOs to see how the One hundred plus requests that journalists filed are responded to.
Together we can remind all actors to come to speed in honoring FOI requests to promote disclosure rather than thrashing requests and discarding decisions of IIC, which is heightening the public cynicism that FOI Law is a lost course.
……END….