MISA marks IDUAI

The Media Institute of Southern Africa in Lesotho (MISA Lesotho) has issued a statement in commemoration of the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) 2024.

IDUAI was proclaimed on October 15, 2019, at the 74th United Nations General Assembly to be held on September 28 of every year. Initially, the day was designated by the UNESCO General Conference. It was inaugurated in November 2015 and was first held on September 28, 2016.

This year’s Global Conference on IDUAI will be hosted by Ghana in collaboration with UNESCO on 1-2 October, under the theme: “Mainstreaming Access to Information and Participation in the Public Sector”.

Lesotho has no law on Access to Information. A bill was first crafted in 2000, but it has not seen the light of day in parliament.

Under the ongoing national reforms, the now-defunct National Reforms Authority (NRA) had initiated, in 2021, a fresh bill on access to information. 

“We can only hope that the parliament will approve and pass into law the Access to Information Bill of 2021, in due course.

“The government of Lesotho has, instead of giving first priority to access to information as a public right and a pillar for a democratic society, introduced the Computer Crime and Cybersecurity Bill of 2021, which grossly restrict access to information,” MISA Lesotho said in a statement.

The Computer Crime and Cybersecurity Bill was first presented to Parliament by then Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, Honourable Keketso Sello, on March 23rd, 2021. The bill contains at least seven provisions that intentionally restrict access to information