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This article participates on the following special index pages:
New Constitution-making process - Index of articles
National study on access to information in Zimbabwe
The
African Network of Constitutional Lawyers (ANCL)
September 17, 2012
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Executive
Summary
Access to Information is by no means an end in itself, rather it
is a means through which communities and individuals alike obtain
knowledge of the rights that accrue to them and demand their fulfillment.
Further, it is a tool for enhancing citizen engagement and participation
in their governance, attaining mass-based empowerment and local
level poverty reduction as well as building the organisational capacity
of local communities by building a critical mass for the demand
of accountability and realisation of other fundamental human rights.
Yet, the centrality
of information to maintaining political power in countries such
as Zimbabwe mean that access to information is sternly restricted.
The culture of secrecy prevalent in most government departments
suggest that access to information is not seen as a right but a
privilege that government officials dispense at will. To maintain
that secrecy, legislation such as the Access
to Information and Privacy Protection Act widely limit the information
accessible to the public while other legislation like the Public
Order and Security Act effectively control dissemination of
any information to the public by restricting public gatherings.
Based on focus
group discussions and interviews conducted, it was noted that people
in Zimbabwe are generally unaware of their right to access information
and the procedure of requesting information from government departments;
on the other hand, it was revealed that the media has dominated
the campaign for access to information thereby erroneously sending
a message that access to information is only for media practitioners.
The effect has been the lack of nationalisation of the access to
information campaign. As a result, it has been recommended that
civic education to raise the public's awareness of the right
of access to information is essential while at the same time the
government is lobbied to implement a proactive information disclosure
policy for all its departments. Meanwhile, the current legislative
framework could be transformed through the current constitution-making
process which provides an indelible opportunity for reform of access
to information laws and a constitutionally guaranteed right of access
to information.
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