Navigating a restrictive access to information infrastructure in Uganda through the use of social media
Posted: 2 September, 2024 Filed under: Kansiime Mukama Taremwa | Tags: #MeToo, #UgandaParliamentaryExhibition, Access to Information, Access to Information Act, Arab Spring, costs of access to information, dictatorship, digital technologies, human rights law instruments, informed decision-making, internet, political development, political issues, social media, Social media activism, socio-economic development, street protests, traditional media, transparency, Uganda, youthful demonstrators Leave a comment
Author: Kansiime Mukama Taremwa
LLM Candidate, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
From late February into March 2024, a hashtag ran on X (formerly Twitter) under the designation #UgandaParliamentaryExhibition. According to the protagonists behind this hashtag, the purpose of this move was to cast light on the outrageous spending within Uganda’s parliament.
The internet is considered to be the most disruptive piece of technology that enables the receipt and dissemination of information. Uganda is home to 2.6 million social media users. Few people can doubt the power of the internet in general and social media specifically, in stimulating democratic culture. Even some of the critics of digitisation accept that digital technologies lower the costs of access to information. The use of social media to organise and mobilise persons for action came to the fore in the early 2010s in what was known as the Arab Spring; a series of protests that led to the ousting of dictatorial governments in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. It was known for the youthful demonstrators that staged street protests and used social media to coordinate, raise awareness of the political issues, and record the events on the ground. The results of the Arab Spring are that dictatorships that had managed to stifle access to information and free flow of ideas for many years were toppled in part, due to the mobilisational capacities of social media.
Implementation of the access to information law in Nigeria
Posted: 24 June, 2024 Filed under: Jacob O Arowosegbe | Tags: Access to Information Act, activism, civil society organisations, compromising democratic stability, freedom of expression, Freedom of Information Act, military regimes, nationwide protests, NFOIA, Nigeria, Nigerian 1999 Constitution, restrict access, right of access to information, rule of law, sanctions, system of security Leave a comment
Author: Jacob O Arowosegbe
Solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria
Introduction
Implicit in the guarantee for freedom of expression under section 39(1) of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution[1] is the right to receive and disseminate information and since this right is meaningless without a corresponding right to freedom of access to information, the latter is by implication granted. The right is, however, superseded by the constitutional recognition of the right of the government to restrict access to certain information confidentially received or which it considers prejudicial to public security, order, health, and morality.[2] An example of a law enacted to restrict access to government-held information is the Official Secrets Act, 1962.[3] Under the Act, virtually any information only needs to be placed under a system of security classification currently in use to deny members of the public access to it.[4] Public officials are in fact routinely required to keep sealed lips concerning the conduct of government business.
Testing the Waters of Transparency: The Impact of Namibia’s Access to Information Act on Constitutionalism
Posted: 18 June, 2024 Filed under: Dunia P. Zongwe | Tags: Access to Information Act, accountability, ‘Fishrot’ Files, constitutionalism, corruption scandal, Gondwana case, Haufiku case, human rights, international standards, Namibia, national security, RAI, right to access information, rule of law, secrecy, secret information Leave a comment
Author: Dunia P. Zongwe
Associate Professor, Alliance School of Law, India; and Adjunct Associate Professor, Walter Sisulu University, South Africa
Abstract
This paper decodes the right to access information (RAI) in the newly enacted Access to Information Act in Namibia. Passed by Parliament in 2022, this Act came on the heels of the infamous ‘Fishrot’ Files, the country’s ugliest corruption scandal, uncovered through massive information leaks. This paper evaluates the efficacy of the Act in advancing the goals of constitutionalism by enabling individuals to access information robustly and transparently, thereby holding the ruling elite accountable to the public.
This paper unfolds in four steps. It begins by describing the loopholes that existed in the law before 2022, pondering what these lacunae imply for constitutionalism. Next, the paper dissects the RAI in theory, doctrine, and as presented in the Access to Information Act 8 of 2022. It then examines the Act’s provisions on RAI against the provisions laid out in the 2013 Model Law on Access to Information for Africa, highlighting key parallels. Lastly, drawing on those parallels, the paper assesses whether the RAI, as consecrated in the 2022 Act, advances the goals of constitutionalism. The paper argues that, by excluding from its scope Cabinet deliberations, the Act watered down the presumption of disclosure, and, in that sense, it failed to close the last loopholes that allowed the executive branch to evade accountability. This paper adds to the relevant literature by revealing that implementing the RAI and the disclosure presumption may constrain the executive more effectively than the other organs of the state.
AfricLaw 