Koforidua, July 30, GNA- The media have been urged to educate the public on the need and benefits of the Right to Information (RTI), bill to increase the agitation on Parliament to pass the bill into law.
The Eastern Regional Chairman of the Coalition on the RTI, Mr Edmund Quaynor, said the RTI was not for the media alone but for the general public for the strengthening of democracy.
Speaking at a day's workshop in Koforidua for radio presenters and host of morning radio talk shows drawn from the region, he stressed the need for the media to educate the public to understand that the RTI was a democratic requirement for the public to access information and know what goes on.
He said the coalition on the RTI had raised some concerns such as the fee paying by applicants and administration of the RTI by the Attorney General's Department in the bill currently before parliament.
Mr Quaynor said the coalition was of the view that the fee component should be scraped since affordability could not be guaranteed and an independent commission must be set up for the administration of the RTI.
He said the coalition believed that this and other clauses in the bill must be scraped before it became law otherwise some of the conditions might prevent the public from accessing the law for its benefit.
A resource person, Mr Kingsley Dadzawa who took the participants through the legality of the RTI, said the RTI had its authority from the same constitution that the country had been using over the years.
He said the framers of the constitution recognized that participatory democracy thrived on information and knowledge and therefore made a constitutional requirement for the RTI to become law.
Mr Dadzawa explained to the participants that under the RTI law, every citizen irrespective of his stature and creed could apply for information from all ministries and departments except those exempted.
He mentioned those exempted as state security apparatus and international relations to safeguard the interest of the state.
GNA
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