Government under pressure on Access to Information
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Malawi Chapter has expressed disappointment over government’s failure to table in Parliament the much-awaited Access to Information (ATI) Bill during the Mid-Term Budget Review Meeting that opened on Monday.
In a statement signed by its chairperson Thom Khanje, Misa-Malawi reminded President Peter Mutharika on how the bill was ranked highly on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) manifesto in the run-up to the May 20 Tripartite Elections.
The bill has not been tabled again this session after government promised to do so.
Khanje said the missing of the bill on the list of Parliament business raises questions on the integrity and commitment of the Mutharika administration on laws that are critical not only to the media but society at large.
In the statement, Misa Malawi also lobbied its members and the public to continue to lobby for the enactment of the ATI to ensure that Malawians enjoy their constitutionally guaranteed right to access information.
Reacting to Misa Malawi’s outcry, Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nankhumwa said there is political will to see the bill passed.
He attributed the delays to technocrats in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
Said Nankhumwa: “As government, we are equally worried about the delay because the bill has been in our manifesto and the President also mentioned it on several occasions. The Ministry of Information finished working on the bill in December [2014] and it was sent to Justice where it has taken time. What is left is for the Ministry of Justice’s lawyers to finish vetting it, a task that has taken some time.”
The ATI has been on the cards for almost a decade now since it was drafted and regimes have come and gone without assenting to it.
