THE AFC’S FREEDOM OF INFORMTION BILL OF 2006
It has now been almost two months since the President of Guyana made the
announcement at the 5
Freedom of Information Bill in the National Assembly. Though we have heard nothing
else since this ground breaking announcement, we presume that everything is on schedule
and that the much anticipated Bill will be presented in a few days time.
However, the AFC has pointed out that there is no need for there to be a new Bill
introduced because one has been presented by us since 2006, The support for its passage
into law has already been indicated by the PNCR and the GAP/ROAR opposition
parliamentary parties. The missing national stakeholder is the PPP/C who we continue to
urge to join the cause by supporting the AFC’s Bill. If on the other hand it wants to have
its own Bill then we will welcome the move because the legislation is very important to
the strengthening democracy and good governance in Guyana.
In the interest of publicly educating the citizens as to the various features of the Bill we
discuss briefly other clauses.
th Summit of the Americas that his government would table a
Protection Against Being Sued For Defamation
Clause 38 of the Bill seeks to protect those who are required by law to provide
information from being sued for defamation over the contents of those documents. There
is a presumption that the person producing the document has acted in good faith and with
the belief that the document was given in accordance with the law. In this regard
therefore
“(a) no action for defamation, breach f confidence or infringement of copyright may be
brought against the public authority or against the responsible Minister, or an officer or
employee of the public authority as a result of giving access;
(b) no action for defamation or breach of confidence may be brought, in respect of any
publication involved in the giving of access by the public authority, against-
(1) the author of the document; or
(2) any person as a result of that person having supplied the document or the
information contained in it to the public authority;
(c) no person shall be guilty of an offence by reason only of having authorized, or having
been involved in the giving of the access.”
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