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 The right is, however, superseded by the constitutional recognition of the right of the government to restrict access to certain information confidentially received or which it considers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.
Technology and Access to Information: Effect of Search Algorithms on Access to Information
Posted: 12 June, 2024 Filed under: Wendy Ashikomela Ashilenje | Tags: Access to Information, Access to the internet, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blocking and filtering, Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), freedom of expression, increased internet use, right of access to information, Search Algorithms, social media platforms, specific behavioural patterns, technological advances, technology, Universal Declaration of Human Rights Leave a comment
Author: Wendy Ashikomela Ashilenje
Advocate of the High Court of Kenya
Introduction
Are you accessing all the information on your Facebook, Threads, Google, Bing or Instagram? The increased technological advances in Africa have been characterised by the increased use of the internet which is driven by the increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), hence confirming that we are in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Statistics by Statista show that as at 2024, Africa had approximately 646 million internet users which is a slight increase from the 570 million internet users in 2022. As a result of the increased internet use, there is a lot of information that is out there which can be accessed through the various search engines or social media platforms. The science behind the internet may be complicated but it can easily be described by one word – algorithms. Algorithms are machine learning techniques that have been programmed to provide certain output based on the information that they are fed. Tarleton Gillespie attempts to give context as to what algorithms are and states that they are encoded procedures that transform the input data into a desired or specific output based on certain calculations.
AfricLaw 