Experiences with recently passed access to information legislation among African journalists
Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have passed access to information legislation lately, including Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, which constitute the four cases for this study. The aim of the study is to describe experiences of journalists in the four countries with the new legislations, which are meant to make it easier for reporters and citizens to search for information in the public administration. In-depth interviews were conducted with experienced reporters and editors from various media houses in 2017 and 2018, mostly in the capital cities of the four countries. Although practices with information retrieval are somewhat different between the various media cultures and media outlets, the study found common experiences among the journalists covered by the study. Firstly, although it is clear that media people are aware of the new legislation, access to information (ATI) requests have not become part of the daily news routine. Few of the informants, if any at all, have attended trainings in how to use the new legislation. Secondly, the journalists perceive the exemptions allowed by the ATI regulation to be so broad that officials easily can find a reason to reject an information request if they so wish. The time limit for giving the information is also seen as a hindrance. Few of the researched media houses have a practice of lodging formal complaints when an information request is rejected, even though the legislation allows such complaints. Thirdly, on the positive side, the ATI legislation arguably creates a sense of equity between journalists, insofar as all journalists have an equal right to request information, contrasting previous times when sharing of information often was restricted to named reporters according to reputation and kinship with higher officials. Finally, the study points to a paradox in information retrieval practices in the researched countries: While ATI legislation, often inspired by regulation in European countries, regards information as primarily written reports and documents, much information-sharing taking place between public offices and the media in East Africa and the Horn of Africa is not exchange of documents, but rather consists of oral communication. Arguably, this is one of the reasons why journalists tend not to use ATI laws very actively in their daily news work.
Publisert i Norsk medieforskarlags 18. nasjonale konferanse, Bodø, 2018
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