June 30, 2014
Kabul: Afghanistan Journalist Center welcomes the approval of the Access to Information law by the lower house of parliament on Monday as fundamental tool for the Afghan young democracy.
The Ministry of Justice sent the six-chapter law containing 32 articles to the parliament for approval in mid-March this year.
The session was attended by 156 lawmakers where only three lawmakers gave negative vote while modifications were made at least three articles—articles 15, 16 and 17—of the law. They believed that the articles placed some restrictions on the access of information.
Lawmakers said they hope that the law will be approved by upper house of the parliament –and will be passed by Afghan president.
Kabul MP Abdul Hafiz Mansour told to the Tolo news, "The first and second clauses of article 15 respectively say that if a person's humanitarian rights are violated or if a person's honor is in danger, then information about the person should not be provided to anyone,"
"The first clause provides a way for government institutions from releasing information. Therefore, we want the first clause to be excluded." He added
Members of the parliament finally agreed on the exclusion of the clause in article 15 as well as clause four in article 16 that had similar bases.
The MPs raised concern about clause six of article 15, which stated that information should not be released if it could affect Afghanistan's relations with other countries or the country's national sovereignty and national security. MPs believed that keeping the clause could provide ground for the government to withhold information from the public.
In article 17, clause six stated that a membership for the Monitoring Commission on the Access to Information law requires three years of work experience, which the mean time, the MPs decided to keep article 17, clause 6 which requires a three-year work experience for membership of the Monitoring Commission on the Access to Information Law.
"A three-year work experience in civil service law is already devastating for the new generation; if we increase this number from three to five years it will further increase problems for the youth," head of Parliamentary Commission for Health and Youth Affairs, Naqibullah Fayeq, said. "We should not impose more restrictions on the youth."
Additionally, the legislators decided that the Minister of Information and Culture (MoIC) will not have the chairmanship of the monitoring commission on the law. The commission will include high-ranking officials from several ministries and organizations.
"Members of the commission for monitoring access to information law will be comprising of high ranking representatives from MoIC, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and two representatives from media outlets," head of the Parliamentary Commission for Cultural Affairs and Higher Education, Kamal Nasir Osoli, said.
The law was finally approved as the three-year delay in submitting and passing it had been subject to much criticism from the journalist community as well as media support institutions.
Afghanistan Constitution’s article 50 officially recognizes the citizen’s right about access to information, there was no specific law that journalists as front runners of freedom of expression could gain access information.
The continuation of war, the powerful and influential people’s disobedient from the rule of law and the culture of impunity to perpetrators of media violations and more importantly the lack of Access to Information Law has made the freedom of expression more fragile and vulnerable in this young democracy.
Afghanistan Journalist Center asks the Afghan Senate to approve the bill as soon as possible. Therefore, we humbly implore President Karzai to approve the law towards the end of his presidency term, making it a remarkable legacy of his time in supporting the freedom of expression.
Once the Senate approves the law and President signs it, Afghanistan will be better equipped for free press and the Open government and transparent government to its people.