MISA itself, after lengthy consultations, drafted a freedom of information bill and in November 2005 deposited it with the Legal Affairs Commission of the Assembly. In the ensuing two years, there is no sign that either the ruling Frelimo Party or the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition has taken it seriously. The subject has yet to make its way onto the Assembly's agenda.
Journalists have frequently complained of being denied access to data on spurious grounds, such as that the information is "secret" or "confidential". But if the MISA bill is ever passed into law, then officials will no longer be able to use such excuses - instead, citizens will be able to consult all official documents free of charge.
Matters that really are issues of state security will still be kept out of the public domain - but with a proper legal definition, and not at the whim of civil servants.
In a statement issued after a meeting of its General Assembly at the weekend, MISA-Mozambique said it was particularly important for the Assembly to pass a freedom of information bill now, because the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has decided that the central celebrations for World Press Freedom Day (3 May) in 2008 will be held in Mozambique.
UNESCO's decision, the MISA release said, "expresses international recognition of the development of space for freedom of expression and of the press in Mozambique, as a result of the struggle of media professionals, seeking to encourage the organs of sovereignty and public powers in general to preserve a legal and constitutional framework favourable to the exercise of these fundamental rights".
But the choice of Mozambique as the host country for these celebrations, MISA added, should inspire the government and the Assembly to strengthen press freedom and the right of citizens to information "particularly in the districts, where local public powers continue to exercise political control over the activity of journalists, notably those who work for community radios".
The fact that there was still no freedom of information law was "an important gap in the edifice of fundamental rights and freedoms".
3 May was chosen as World Press Freedom Day because it was on that date, in 1991, that African media professionals approved the Windhoek Declaration, which laid down the principle for independent and pluralist media on the continent. The Declaration was subsequently adopted by the UNESCO General Conference.
SOURCE: AIM
