Dakar, Dec 17 (APS) – The director of the Promotion of Good Governance, Alassane Guèye, expressed Tuesday, in Dakar, the desire of the Head of State, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, to achieve rapid adoption of the bill on access to information, ensuring that the file was already on the table of the Secretary General of the Government.
“The President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has instructed the services concerned to adopt the law relating to media and public access to information. The bill is currently on the table of the Minister-Secretary General of the Government,” he said.
The director of the Promotion of Good Governance, a structure dependent on the Ministry of Justice, spoke thus during the workshop to share this bill with the media. The meeting is organized in collaboration with civil society and German international cooperation (GIZ).
This meeting “aims to inform and mobilize the media, (…) in order to relaunch the legislative process through information sharing and effective advocacy,” indicate the organizers.
The process of developing the law providing media and public access to information, initiated since 2009, at the initiative of civil society (Article 19, Civil Forum and RADDHO), has experienced significant delays.
“Fortunately, today, with the current President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, this process has been triggered again so that this law is adopted very quickly,” assured the director of the Promotion of good governance.
Strengthen the rule of law and improve the quality of public debate
This new step-by-step approach obeys, according to him, the importance that the Head of State places on transparency and good governance – which feature prominently in the new policy framework “Vision Senegal 2050” – and the right of the public and the media to information.
“The President of the Republic, who has placed his authority under the seal of transparency and good governance, is very motivated to adopt the law so that journalists, civil society and citizens have access to information. useful regarding the management of public affairs,” said Alassane Guèye.
In addition to promoting this access to information, this law, once adopted by the Council of Ministers and voted on in the National Assembly, will make it possible, he added, to “fight against corruption and protect those who launch ‘alert “.
Access by the media and the public to information contained in public documents and relating to the management of public affairs is a fundamental right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948 and Article 19 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights of June 27, 1981.
Currently, twenty-nine African countries already have such a law which “strengthens democracy and the rule of law”, and “improves the quality of public debate”, we read in a document provided to the press.
ABB/ASG/MTN
