The Right to Information is the key to all other rights. It is among the most important instruments to effectively empower those to whom power should belong in democracy of the people. Media both print and electronic plays a vital role to ensure the people’s right.

The government of Bangladesh adopted the Right to Information Act 2009 in the first session of the ninth parliament on March 29, 2009, marking a momentous step forward in fulfilling the constitutional pledge of the state of Bangladesh.

The precondition of the RTI Act was to ensure the people’s right to know and good governance since the RTI goes hand in hand with freedom of expression. Civil society, through citizens and the media, can justifiably claim access to information.

Governments should make easy this access by maintaining sufficient records as a base of evidence and by providing a road and rail network for giving information. For this the government established an information commission on July 1, 2009 to provide information to the people.

The commission has made to secure the ‘right to information’ of the people. Ensuring people`s right to information is a matter of shared responsibility, not only of the government.  

Why Right to Information Act:  

It is said that, the Right to Information is the key to all other rights. The main object of this Act is to improve democratic government in BD by increasing the accountability of the executive to the people of BD; and by increasing the aptitude of the people of BD to participate in their governance; and by acknowledging that information collected by public authorities is collected for and on behalf of the people of  BD and is the property of the State.

This object is to be pursued by giving members of the public the right to obtain information held by public authorities and Ministers. This object is also to be pursued by giving members of the public the right to obtain information about the operations of Government.

Right to Information Act 2009 & its characteristics:  

The Right to Information Act 2009 commenced and provides for greater access to information held by government bodies by:

 Authorising and encouraging greater routine disclosure of information held by public authorities without the need for requests or applications;

 Authorising and encouraging greater active disclosure of information held by public authorities in response to informal requests without the need for applications;

 Giving members of the public an enforceable right to information held by public authorities; and

 Providing that access to information held by government bodies is restricted in only limited circumstances which are defined in the Act.

Instead of going into a discussion of the merits and demerits of the law as such, we proceed with the assumption that the act has opened up an unprecedented opportunity to make progress towards ensuring citizen’s right to information as well as media.

Right Information & our constitution:

Bangladesh constitution guaranteed Freedom of thought and conscience, and of speech. 

Art 39 states about Freedom of thought and conscience, and of speech as-

(1) Freedom or thought and conscience is guaranteed. 

(2) Subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interests of the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence-

(a) the right of every citizen of freedom of speech and expression; and freedom of the press, are guaranteed.Which authorities are bound to give information: Section 8 of the Right to Information Act 2009 deals with procedures to obtain information.

The person seeking information has to provide his personal details, description of information sought and other information to clarify what is being sought.

Following authorities are bound to give information-

 any organization constituted in accordance with the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; and ministry, division or office established under the Rules of Business made under article 55(6) of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh;

 any statutory body or institution established by or under any Act;

 any private organisation or institution run by government financing or with aid in grant from the government fund;

 any private organisation or institution run by foreign aid in grant;

 any organisation or institution that undertakes public functions in accordance with any contract made on behalf of the Government or made with any public organisation or institution; or

 any organisation or institution as may be notified in the official Gazette from time to time by the Government;Publication of or providing with certain types of information are not mandatory:  Under Section 7, information that could threaten security, integrity and sovereignty of Bangladesh could be denied. Also if it affects relations with foreign countries or organisations it could be refused.

It provides other circumstances when information can be denied.

This are following- 

(a) Any such information that may, if disclosed, cause a threat to the security, integrity and sovereignty of Bangladesh;

(b) Any such information relating to any aspect of foreign policy that may affect the existing relationship with any foreign country or international organisation or any regional alliance or organization;

(c) Any secret information received from a foreign government; 

(d) any information relating to inherent secrets of commercial or business nature, copyright or intellectual property right that may, if published, affect the intellectual property right of a third party.

(e) any of the following information that may, if disclosed, be gainful or damaging to any particular individual or organization, namely any advance information about income tax, customs, VAT and law relating to excise duty, budget or change in the tax rate;

(f)  Any advance information about changes relating to exchange rate and interest rate;

(g) Any advance information about the management and supervision of the financial institutions including banks;

(h) Any such information that may, if disclosed, obstruct the enforcement of law or incite any offence;

(i) Any such information that may, if disclosed, endanger the security of public or impede the due judicial process of a pending case;

(j) Any such information that may, if disclosed, offend the privacy of the personal life of an individual;

(k) Any such information that may, if disclosed, endanger the life or physical safety of any person;

(l) Any such information given in confidence to any law enforcement agency by a person;

(m) Any matter pending before any court of law and which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court;Laws relating to the media: Contempt of Court Act 1926 and 505A of the Penal Code mainly govern the media.

The Contempt of Court Act 1926 (CCA) with only three sections is still effective in Bangladesh, even though a new Bill on this matter is currently under scrutiny.

However, the act does not define what is or amounts to a ‘contempt of court’. Actually the matter has been left on the discretion of the courts. So, any act which a judge thinks to be dishonorable for the court is contempt of court.

This power is endowed with court so that justice is not hampered by the disrespect and contumacy of people. It does not protect the judge as a person rather safeguards the seat of justice.

Section 2 of the act provides that ‘any willful act, statement or expression by words or visible sign that may be considered as a violation of any verdict, decree, order, writ or warrant issued by a court, or demoralize any court, or may obstruct the process of justice, will constitute an offence of contempt of court; the slander or libel of a court and personal criticism of a judge while performing judicial functions will also constitute an offence of contempt.’No court of the lower judiciary can punish the person who is responsible for the contempt.

Section 2 of this act provides that if a court subordinate to the High Court finds any act of any person to be contemptuous, it shall refer the same to the High Court for punishment. However, the general trend is that before sending the matter to the High Court, the accused is asked to show cause.Section 505A of the Penal Code focuses on prejudicial act by words.

It says whoever –

(a)    By words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representation or otherwise does anything, or

(b)    Makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report,which is, or which is likely to be prejudicial to the interests of the security of Bangladesh or public order, or to the maintenance of friendly relations of Bangladesh with foreign states or to the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the community, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both. 

Right to information and role of media:

The more a society moves to implementation of the RTI, the more information would be available for the people. However, in practice it will be impossible, even for the most enlightened citizens, to effectively use all that is available.

Apart from creating demand for citizen’s right to information in general, Media may play a very important role in developing and communicating various categories of materials containing information depending on areas of interest of members of the public, with special emphasis on what it is that should concern them and how they could demand and use those effectively in achieving their rights and entitlements.

Media is not also free from challenges. There can be conflict of interest between its function of informing the public and very important to make profit.

Increasing concentration of media in business houses with political links can pose a challenge to the true spirit of RTI by influencing the opinion through purposive use of information. A strong and principled self-regulatory system within the media can be helpful.

The enactment of the Right to Information Act is an epoch-making incident in the history of Bangladesh. So for the sake of transparent and accountable governance to take root in the country, the public need information of vital public importance, such as the contents of cabinet decisions, proceedings of the financial deals struck with national and multinational companies, details of the political, economic and military policies a government pursues with foreign states and international organisations, development paradigms and economic policies that a government adopts and implements for different sections of society, restriction of public information  should be more relaxed for all as well as media.

Implementation of RTI, as earlier indicated, is much more difficult than adoption of the Act; it is a multi-stakeholder challenge; it requires a comprehensive approach; and it will yield result only when there is 19na full-fledged and committed ownership of all stakeholders, especially internalization of the benefits of the concept of the right to information by the demand side as well as the supply side - those who need the information and those who hold them.

Ensuring people`s right to information will be possible only in a long-term process that demands un-ending commitment and effort from a range of different actors who have to be prepared for coping with setbacks and frustrations.

Capacity to be creative for facing challenges will be crucial, in which taking lessons from experiences of what works and what does not is important, so would be a commitment to learning by doing backed up by a continuous process of innovation and creativity.