Information and Media Minister, Hon. Cornelius Mweetwa, MP on Friday, 10th November presented the Access to Information (ATI) Bill to the National Assembly for the first reading. 

“Madam speaker, I beg to present a bill entitled the Access to Information Bill, National Assembly Bill 24 of 2023”, said Hon. Mweetwa.   

The objects of this Bill are to; 
(a) designate the Human Rights Commission as an oversight institution on matters relating to access to information;
(b) provide for the right to access information and its limitations;
(c) provide for procedures for processing requests for information;
(d) give effect to the right to access information as guaranteed in the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights; and
(e) provide for matters connected with, or incidental to, the foregoing.

The Access to Information (ATI), which is sometimes referred to as Freedom of Information (FOI) or the Right to Know (RTK), is premised on the idea that information that is held by state institutions or private institutions conducting business that is meant for public bodies and has implications for the public should be available for the public. 

ATI is founded on the fact that public institutions or the state perform functions on behalf of the public, thus the information it holds is for the public and therefore the public should have access to it or the right to know. This right is however, subjected to exceptions that include, public security and information relating to private individuals.

Access to Information is a fundamental human right that is provided for in various international and regional instruments such as Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR). 

Zambia having both ratified the ICCPR and the ACHPR, has an obligation as a member state to ensure that it enacts the laws that facilitate the actualization of this right. 
Ends//