Sep 29, 2011

News

African Grantees Honored for Freedom of Information Work

Two NED grantees were recognized at the Pan African Conference on Access to Information (PACAI) for their work in spreading freedom of information. Malcolm Joseph (right) of NED grantee Center for Media Studies and Peace-Building, and Edetaen Ojo of Media Rights Agenda (a past NED grantee) received the first PACAI Access to Information Awards at the culmination of the Sept. 17-19 conference in South Africa.

The Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding was a crucial force in getting the Sept. 2011 Freedom of Information law through the Liberian legislature – the first such law in West Africa – and Executive Director Malcolm Joseph actively facilitated the implementation of transparency provisions in other laws. Joseph accepted the Award from Norris Tweah, a deputy minister in Liberia’s Ministry of Information.

Past grantee Media Rights Agenda was critical in the passage of Nigeria’s historic Freedom of Information law, signed by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in May 2011. Executive Director Edetaen Ojo was also recognized for his decade and a half of work promoting freedom of information across the continent. He was presented the Award by Nigerian Information and Communications Minister Labaran Maku. Alain Modoux, a former Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, was the third Award recipient, honoured for his work promoting freedom of information and press.

There are only four other countries in Africa with Access to Information laws: South Africa, Uganda, Angola, and Ethiopia. While Zimbabwe does have its Access to Information and Privacy Act, the law has been used more often to suppress information.

The Pan African Conference on Access to Information was convened in conjunction with other information conferences in Cape Town, all focused around the 20th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, which affirmed the importance of a free press to democracy and development, and which resulted in the creation of World Press Freedom Day.

The conferences, which shared the opening ceremony, brought together almost 1,000 journalists and civil society activists from across Africa.