Media Institute of the Caribbean recommends changes to legislative framework for Freedom of Information/Access to Information Acts

By Aaron Humes: The Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC) has reviewed and recommended region-wide changes to the legislative frameworks of regional Freedom of Information/Access to Information (FOI/ATI) Acts.

Their Legislative Review Report, conducted in association with the UK AID Office, recommends some amendments to reverse tendencies by Governments to limit the type of information available and to whom, and generally recommends the model law created by the Organization of American States (OAS).

It follows regional discussions since last January which uncovered multiple complaints from journalists about how to access FOI/ATI Acts and the creation of a regional help desk and advocacy toolkit to shepherd such requests through the bureaucracy.

Prominent journalist Wesley Gibbings called on journalists and citizens to step up and begin to change the ‘culture of secrecy’ and the feeling among some public officers that they are solely in charge of Information, rather than holding it in trust for the citizenry. He also called for keeping an eye on the new digital reality that is coming for the world and the region.

Among legislative frameworks in the region, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda have been commended for proper implementation and usage, while Guyana has been recommended for a thorough repeal as journalists there find they can do little with it.

We’ll have more on where Belize stands later on.

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