Guyana has least effective Access to Information Laws in the Region - Caribbean Media Institute

Guyana has least effective Access to Information Laws in the Region – Caribbean Media Institute

May 03, 2024 News

Kaieteur News – Guyana has enacted what the Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC) calls the least effective piece of Access to Information Laws in the region.

The Media Institute of the Caribbean, Dionne Jackson Miller

This according to Dionne Jackson-Miller, of MIC, who this week provided the body’s legislative review of Freedom of Information Laws in the region for 2024 and its recommendations, singling out Guyana as,” a special case.”

The body has since recommended a complete revamp of the local legislation given its ineffectiveness. Addressing Guyana specifically, the specialist said, “having gone through the Guyanese legislation, I believe that this is, the let me pull from my rarely used diplomacy, let me just stay this is the least effective law that has been enacted across the region.”

According to Jackson-Miller, “we believe that there are so many issues with it, we believe that it needs fundamental reform, we are suggesting that there isn’t a peace-meal approach to then try and patch this up, that the entire law be repealed, discussions take place and new laws enacted.

She did however insist that the laws still be tested even if to have data documenting the inadequacies in the Guyana law.

Further lamenting the Guyana situation, she observed that there is no provision for information officers in different ministries or departments, “there is one central commissioner for the entire Guyana and all the requests are supposed to go to this one person who is supposed to field them.”

Further compounding the situation, he noted that “because the information commissioner is the be all and end all, there is no internal appeal so any kind of appeal have to go to the high court.”

To this she quipped, “I don’t know where the template came for that, don’t see that anywhere across the world.”

Acknowledging that while there are successful cases of Freedom of Information and Access to information laws working well, a survey conducted for the Caribbean has revealed that “the laws don’t work as smoothly as they should, there are instances of it working.”

Referencing some of the challenges faced by journalists in the Region, Jackson-Miller noted that as much as 34 percent of journalists in the region reports a flat our refusal on the part of governments when it comes time to legally accessing public information. Additionally, she said, where laws do exist, 86 percent reported not getting any response whatsoever, while 49 percent say no clear explanations are provided and another 56 percent of persons surveyed called the legislations a “waste of time.”

“Across the region, we are seeing limited use, even where it exists, we are hearing frustration with how it works as well as we are hearing journalist saying it’s just not working,” according to Jackson Miller. Governments, she reminded, tend to adopt a culture of hanging onto information, especially when asking for certain types of information that they find might embarrass them.

To this end, she was adamant that it was the obligation on the part of governments across the region to engage in maximum disclosure, since all information held by public bodies should be for public information. Governments she said were obligated to inform the public, “we shouldn’t only be asking for information, there is a lot of information that government have that they should be openly publishing, we should be able to watch see what is being done.”

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Access to Information Laws, Dionne Jackson Miller, legislation, Region, The Media Institute of the Caribbean

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