This year as we celebrate the “Right to know” week from 22nd to 28th September, and the “International Right to Know” day on Sunday September 28th, this special edition of Pambazuka News seeks to examine how the right to enhances democracy and how African countries are faring in the pursuit of the “right to know”.

One often finds that while the advocates of freedom of information under article 19 of the universal declaration of human rights, have a clear understanding of what the principle of the “right to know” entails, most ordinary people, have a harder time pinpointing exactly how the right to know affects their daily lives. More if they are from countries which are still under or have recently emerged from totalitarian rule- where freedom of speech and other rights are almost unheard of.

The idea or the right to know is much more abstract and difficult to conceptualise on a day-to day basis. Yet freedom of information is a cornerstone of democracy. Malcolm Fraser, a former Australian Prime Minister once said, “How can any community progress without continuing and informed and intelligent debate? ... How can there be debate without information?''

The principles underpinning democracy include people’s participation in all levels of decision making from an informed perspective yet many African Countries operate within a culture of official secrecy, suppression of media freedoms, freedom of expression and of information. A glimpse at any anti-corruption index shows that countries with freedom of information feature high on the list while countries those that curtail the right to information feature highly among the most corrupt. That there is a link between corruption and the lack of freedom of information there is no doubt.

This is a significant year for democracy in Africa. 2008 began with the crisis in Kenya, following the disputed December 2007 election, following which the country descended into chaos in the violence that followed the elections. The elections in Zimbabwe were also disputed and ended in a stalemate after a failed run-off election. In both of these cases, the solution was the formation of a coalition government, a dangerous precedent for democracy in Africa. In the middle of all this, there has been a severe crackdown on freedom of expression, freedom of information, gagging of journalists and in the case of Kenya, there was a suspension of live media broadcasts in the name of national security.

The right to know has for a long time been equated to the media’s right to access government information, to access information pertaining to a public personality, publish a “scoop”. The right to know goes beyond just press freedom, yet any government seeking to limit press freedom attacks all aspects of freedom of expression. A part of this is in lack of awareness of the different aspects of freedom of expression.

There is no doubt that for a democracy to thrive, there has to be open and free participation of people. Governments are simply custodians of our resources, but how can they hold them accountable if we do not know what they are and should be doing.

Mukelani Dimba gives a brief overview on the International instruments that deal with Freedom of information and attempts to give their effect to the right to information in selected African countries. He reviews the laws in each of the regional blocs in Africa and it is clear that the existence of the law doesn’t always guarantee the rights of individuals.

Juliette Fugier and Mukelani Dimba examine the impact of the American war on terrorism on freedoms in Africa and conclude that it has dealt a severe blow to freedom of information on the African continent. Even Countries like South Africa which 10 years ago passed some very progressive laws are reintroducing official secrecy acts or clauses in their laws “in the name of national security.”

ICJ Kenya’s article on FOI in democracy and Economic development argues that for citizens to make informed choices, they require information and often their access to information is hampered by state officials. Freedom of information is an important tool in fighting the corruption that is endemic in many African countries.

Mwangi Kibathi’s article draws examples from ancient Spartan democratic systems where population growth and increasing complexities of decision making led to the development of representative government. Since then, access to information has become a struggle between the rulers and the ruled. In Africa, the first few decades following independence, most countries were ruled under strict authoritarian systems and although there have been positive strides towards more open governance, we are still a long way away from the perfect open democracy. Freedom of information is vital to improve the quality of governance and should be upheld and protected.

* Stella Chege is Fahamu's (www.fahamu.org) Kenya programme manager.

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