As we know access to information can be somewhat of a good and bad thing, it just depends how we look at it. Something we know that is vital to access to information is that it’s the use for citizens making their voices heard and to hold the government accountable for things. It is also the right to request and receive information, as well as an obligation for government to publish information proactively. The government isn’t exactly known for being all that transparent with things from what we know, and they strive on being transparent with the public, but then they go and hide things, make information redacted. Is it bad that I think it’s stupid for them to hold things back from us?
I get that with some things they don’t want to cause panic in people, but its better knowing than finding out last minute, that doesn’t make sense. Hiding a big thing from people that could possibly harm them, and having them find out at the last second? That terrifies people more. Access to information is seen as the key to empowering all people, they have the claim to their broader rights and entitlements.
Access to information is a big thing and its potential contribution to a good governance, this lies between the willingness of the government being transparent, but also the ability of the citizens to demand and use the information –whether doing a documentary or a deep dive into a political topic, or a murder case. There are topics that should be available to the public, some of them being decision-making process in government, public administration, public sector systems. There are important provisions and those are push for stronger laws- a strong access to information law would help to give citizens the right to request information and shine a light where there are suspicions of corruption. Encourages proactive transparency- a significant increase to the volume of information that it automatically available to the public and published proactively. Monitor implementation- civil society help to uncover where States Parties are not fully implementing the UNCAC, or where improvements can be made, including on transparency measures.
I do believe that an improvement on access to information can be a good thing when it comes to being a society of people who can speak their mind without a care in the world. A transparent government will help when it comes to giving citizens information, they ask for rather than them redacting a bunch of things in documents, it ok to tell the people what they want to know. I do agree with the provision of it pushing for stronger laws, citizens would be able to point out positions of corruption in the government, I mean people now are great at finding people, its kind of scary. Access to information is a good thing if there’s a balance on both sides, that is something I will agree with and do think can help improve things in society.
https://uncaccoalition.org/learn-more/access-to-information/
