The International Day for Universal Access to Information will be observed today in Bangladesh as elsewhere in the world with the aim of raising mass awareness of the right to information.
Various programmes will be organised across the country marking the day with this year鈥檚 theme 鈥楨nsuring access to environmental information in the digital age鈥�.
On the occasion, the Transparency International Bangladesh on Saturday urged the interim government to establish an effective independent information commission.
As part of the programmes, a discussion meeting will be held at 3:00pm today at the Information Commission auditorium at Agargaon in the capital, which information and broadcasting adviser Md Mahfuj Alam is scheduled to attend as the chief guest.
Besides, a seminar titled 鈥楻ight to Information Act: A Perspective Review鈥� will be organised by the Right to Information Forum on Sunday at Lakeshore Grand Hotel at Gulshan in the capital.
The TIB in a statement sent to the media expressed disappointment and concern over the failure to reconstitute the Information Commission for more than a year since the fall of authoritarian rule.
The anti-graft body urged that the prolonged paralysis of the commission be ended immediately by appointing qualified individuals -- free of conflicts of interest -- as commissioners through a transparent process.
At the same time, the TIB also called for necessary amendments to the Right to Information Act 2009 and comprehensive reforms to transform the Information Commission into an effective and independent institution.聽
TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman said, 鈥楢lthough the interim government has taken several initiatives towards state reforms, no steps have been taken to make the Information Commission functional or to undertake the necessary reforms to the RTI Act.
Despite the civil society repeatedly making recommendations and issuing statements in the media, no action has followed, he resented.
This visible indifference to protecting the citizens鈥� right to information is deeply unfortunate and it marks one of the major failures of the interim government, he said, urging the government to reconstitute the commission without delay.
Iftekharuzzaman also said, 鈥楨ven when citizens file RTI applications, in the absence of an active commission, complaints are neither heard nor resolved.鈥�
Training for information officers and other RTI-related activities are moving at a sluggish pace, creating obstacles to citizens鈥� free access to information, he said.
The TIB official also said that although the RTI Act was passed and the Information Commission was established as a statutory independent body, the law was never effectively implemented due to the lack of political will and visible reluctance of the authoritarian government.
To ensure universal access to information and meaningful citizen participation, the TIB has proposed a set of 15-point recommendations, including amending and modernising relevant provisions of the RTI Act in line with stakeholder feedbacks already submitted to the government, bringing political parties and privately owned institutions within the scope of the RTI Act, requiring political parties to disclose detailed accounts of their income and expenditures, with the Election Commission proactively publishing this information on its website timely.
The UNESCO-recognised day is observed globally every year on September 28 to build awareness about the right to information.
