{"id":23224,"date":"2022-06-25T15:14:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-25T15:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public"},"modified":"2022-06-25T15:27:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T15:27:10","slug":"push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public","title":{"rendered":"Push to open Cabinet files to public"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>ARLANA SHIKONGO and JOHN-COLIN NAMENE<\/p>\n

THE passing of the access to information bill in the National Assembly earlier this week has sparked a push for regulations promoting blanket secrecy and the exclusion of Cabinet files and judiciary information to be lifted.<\/p>\n

Access to Information in Namibia (Action) Coalition chairperson Frederico Links says revisiting secrecy regulations within the bill would be key in ensuring transparent access to information pertaining to the Cabinet, the judiciary, and any entities involved with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, Cabinet deliberations are sensitive. So you would rather put a certain time limit on it, like 10 or 20 years after an administration has left.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that way you can still have these documents available as historical documents on political [and] executive processes during a specific Presidency,\u201d Links says.<\/p>\n

Under the current draft of the bill certain entities are exempted from transparent supervision, which is inappropriate, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf an entity is doing business with the government or on behalf of the government, it should also fall under the purview of the law,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

This comes into play as the bill heads to the National Council for review before eventually being signed into law by the president.<\/p>\n

Links says it would be interesting to see how the National Council interacts with the committee report that made recommendations.<\/p>\n

Namibia Media Trust (NMT) director Zoe Titus this week welcomed the passing of the bill, saying small gains must be celebrated.<\/p>\n

She, however, highlighted the challenges of the bill in its current format if not amended.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a potential challenge in the future that it is going to be a complicated process to get the information, that people would not be able to access the information in the format they require,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Titus said even though people may have better access to information, there are still many factors to consider.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep in mind the law says people must get information in a language that is relevant to them. [Also] we do not have information officers in public institutions who can communicate with people with hearing impairments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next thing is that record-keeping in general is very poor. People may seek information that is just not available,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Titus raised concerns about the lack of public knowledge on the contents of the bill, questioning whether there were any substantial changes that came from the deliberations in the parliamentary standing committee on information.<\/p>\n

She said the bill may not be fully implemented, adding that the legislation is part of a broader group of other bills that need to be gazetted.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor journalists and the work they do, they require an access to information law, supported by witness protection legislation and whistleblower legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whistleblower legislation has been lying on the shelf since 2017. I really hope this is not the case with this subsequent law,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Media lecturer at the Namibian University of Science and Technology Phillip Santos says journalists have to come to the party and will play their part when the law is inked, adding it would have a huge impact on the media industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor starters, it takes away speculation around issues where primary information would have been difficult. Where journalists would say they could not reach a source, one would expect them to have that latitude to get access to the information they need to write stories,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Santos makes special reference to how this would affect investigative journalists, noting it would boost their reporting considering they require access to complex information.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government and the private sector hold massive amounts of information that would be difficult for the ordinary person to process, but it would be available to investigative journalists to sift through for them to inform the public,\u201d Santos says.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. ARLANA SHIKONGO and JOHN-COLIN NAMENE THE passing of the access to information bill in the National Assembly earlier this week has sparked a push for regulations promoting blanket secrecy and the exclusion of Cabinet files and judiciary information to be lifted. Access to Information in Namibia (Action) Coalition chairperson Frederico Links says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-23224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nPush to open Cabinet files to public - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ARLANA SHIKONGO and JOHN-COLIN NAMENE THE passing of the access to information bill in the National Assembly earlier th ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Push to open Cabinet files to public\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ARLANA SHIKONGO and JOHN-COLIN NAMENE THE passing of the access to information bill in the National Assembly earlier th ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-25T15:14:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-25T15:27:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_6-62b729397a13b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"754\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Push to open Cabinet files to public\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-25T15:14:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-25T15:27:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public\"},\"wordCount\":643,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_6-62b729397a13b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/push-to-open-cabinet-files-to-public\",\"name\":\"Push to open Cabinet files to public - 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