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West Africa journalists celebrate breakthrough
Wednesday, 06 October 2010 22:48
By Jollof News Staff WriterWest Africa journalists are celebrating a major advance after Liberia became the first country in the sub region to introduce the Freedom of Information Act.
A statement by the Press Union of Liberia, issued Tuesday, hailed the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for appending her signature on the law, describing it as the biggest signing in the history of the country.
A Presidential Press Secretary in Liberia, earlier on Monday, announced that the President had forwarded the bill to the Foreign Ministry for printing into hand bills.
The sub regional body ECOWAS recently announced it was working on the possibility of developing a Protocol on the Right to Information through the ECOWAS Commission. The Protocol seeks to establish regional legal standards for the Right to Information for the 15 countries in the ECOWAS region. Once approved, the sub regional body will recommend its adoption by member states into national laws. But the persistent existence of repressive legislations and extrajudicial pressures on the media in some member countries remain a dispiriting sign for success in this regard.
Liberia’s pioneering move, therefore, is indeed an encouraging development for the sub regional umbrella body of journalists, the West African Journalist Association (WAJA) which, alongside other regional institutions, has been working hard to have member countries adopt such laws.
While praising its government for acting “in the interest of the state”, the Liberian Press Union admitted the existence of difficulties associated with implementation of such a law, but that it was relieved by the determination shown by the administration to get the instrument enacted.
“We are hopeful that determination will be manifested in the implementation,” Union president Peter Quaqua said.
The task in the hands of Liberian journalists now is to convince the government to repeal its remaining anti-speech laws. Press Union President Quaqua said sedition, Criminal Libel against the President and Criminal malevolence are all counterproductive to the spirit of an FOI and should be abolished.
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