CIJ wants guaranteed right to information in times of crises

In conjunction with the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) today, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) wishes to reiterate the importance of the right to information (RTI) and the need for the protection and upholding of our RTI by the State and its actors in times of crises such as now.

IDUAI celebrates RTI, a fundamental human right that allows us to be able to form opinions about issues that affect us by being able to access public information that implicates our lives. This allows us to be more informed when taking part in any debate or discussions relating to decision-making processes. In doing so, we hold the State, its related bodies and officials accountable for their decisions and actions.

In line with the focus of this year’s IDUAI, CIJ would like to bring to attention the need for guaranteed access to information through and beyond the current pandemic. In the last few months, we have observed a shrinking of spaces for accessing information and media reporting in Malaysia on the basis of COVID-19.

For example, access to certain press conferences by ministers providing COVID-19 related updates is limited to just the “official media”, most notably the regular press conferences on COVID-19 updates by Senior Minister for Security, Ismail Sabri Yaakob. On 26 June 2020, Boo Su-Lyn, the editor-in-chief of health news portal CodeBlue, was questioned by the police over CodeBlue reports quoting the declassified findings of an independent inquiry committee into the 2016 fire at Hospital Sultanah Aminah in Johor. She is being investigated under Section 203A of the Penal Code, which criminalises the disclosure of information.

These scenarios are deeply troubling for several reasons. For a start, the public has a right to know what transpired and be able to form their own opinion based on multiple sources of information. Second, any censorship and control of media platforms by the government will create an information vacuum. Third, this trend of restricting and allowing access to only government media agencies creates a situation that only one-sided news or perception will be available to the public. Furthermore, any limitation or barriers to access to information impacts transparency, and thus impedes rule of law and good governance.

We reiterate that any measures taken to tackle COVID-19 and which have the potential to restrict access to information must be legal, necessary, proportionate and temporary, with the sole aim of mitigating the immediate public health crisis. In this regard, the government must work towards ensuring fair and equal access to all media outlets to all timely information related to the crisis and/or public importance.

Furthermore, the principle of maximum disclosure of documents of public interest must be adhered to by the State and a harm test should always be administered to determine legitimacy, necessity and proportionality before restricting access to information and criminalising its disclosure. No one should be punished on national security grounds if their disclosure of information does not cause harm and the public interest in knowing said information outweighs the harm from its disclosure.

However, these recommendations will not hold weight so long as the Official Secrets Act (OSA) is used. Thus, we hope the government will continue with the previous government’s commitment to repeal the draconian OSA and enact an RTI legislation.

It is time to replace the culture of secrecy at the federal level with a culture of openness to meet the growing public demands for transparency and accountability at all levels of governance!

28 September 2020

Wathshlah G. Naidu
CIJ Executive Director