IMPERATIVE OF THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FoI Act) TO JOURNALISM PRACTISE IN NIGERIA

By Raji Rasaq

Many countries around the world have embraced the Freedom of Information Act (FoI Act) and have jettisoned the culture of secrecy in the ways governments conduct their businesses. It is no more a kind of luxury enjoyed only by a few persons in the corridors of power. In fact, there have been pieces of evidence that the adoption and use of the Act across the world have made significant impacts.

According to Oxford Research Encyclopedia, studies have shown effects of FOI law on Great Britain with increased government transparency. The Encyclopedia adds that:

      Another study found that FOI laws led to more open government personnel   

      management practices in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada 

      (Hazell, 1989). In India, civil society activists view FOI as a vital and    

      decentralized tool for transforming an opaque and largely corrupt political

      the culture into one that is more open and democratic.”

Nigeria is not an exception. In Journals of Democracy, Omenogo Veronica Mejabi et. al (2017) also claim that the FoI Act had garnered the global popularity and recognition and the level of its adoption has increased dramatically. According to the researchers:

        Countries like the United States of America adopted the FOIA in 1966,      

      Sweden (1766), Angola (2002), Argentina (2003), Australia (1982), Bosnia

      (2001), Bulgaria (2000), Canada (1983), Colombia (1985), Denmark (1985),

      Germany (2005), India (2005), South Korea (1996) (Banisar, 2006) and

      Nigeria (2011), among others.

In Nigeria, after many years of a legislative battle over the Bill, it eventually became law in 2011.

As contained in a publication issued by the Media Rights Agenda, (2018), the Freedom of Information Act (2011) is:

       An Act to make public records and information more freely available,      

      provide for public access to public records and information, protect public 

      records and information to the extent consistent with the public interest and 

      the protection of personal privacy, protect serving public officers from

      adverse consequences of disclosing of certain kinds of official information

      without authorization and establish procedures for the achievement of those

      purposes and for related matters.

Going by the above, the Act gives everyone the right to request information, whether or not contained in any written form, which is in the custody or possession of any public official, agency or institution howsoever described. The person requesting the information does not need to show any specific interest in the information or justify his/her reasons for making the request.

Part of the dictates of the Act is that information can be sought from all corporations established by law and all companies in which the government has a controlling interest and private companies utilizing public funds providing public services or performing public functions.

As explained by Patient Yusuf of the Public Affairs Department of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC, 2012), the FoI Act is a great departure from the Official Secret Act (1911) which “promotes secrecy and criminalises the disclosure of information”.

To Matthew Osa-Oghogho, the Chief Policy Officer, Advocacy International, the FOIA has the potential to ensure more transparency in the corridors of government… It can be the difference between accountability and profligacy in our public institutions.”

In view of all these, it is obvious that the Act is a ready tool to fight graft, reduce opaqueness in the government’s ways of doing business as well as propagating an open society for the good of all.  It is a veritable tool in the hands of the journalists, non-for-profit organisations, media practitioners, government institutions, anti-graft agencies, human rights activists and advocates among others.

Not yet there!

Contrary to the expectations of the Act to channel the course of information disclosure in Nigeria, not much has been achieved. According to a non-for-profit media organisation, Right-to-Know, Nigeria, as reported by the Colombia Journalism Review (2015), “The average level of compliance was just 9.35%, with the Federal Ministry of Justice attaining the highest score at 19.52%, and the Nigeria Football Federation ranking lowest, at 2.96%”.

Also, according to the Media Rights Agenda, (MRA), over 66 institutions and two judges have been profiled so far, has still failed to comply with the act. The organisation has named, shamed and at times sued them. The resultant effect of all of these is that the purpose for which the Act is promulgated in the first place is jeopardized. The media, the direct beneficiary has not been better for it as the culture of ‘spoon-feeding journalism’ where journalists solely rely on government press releases, briefing and an official statement is pervading, as opportunities to verify and fact-check government claims are lost.  

How Crucial is the Act to Journalism Practice?

As a form of mechanism for open society, transparency and accountability, the ACT cannot act alone. It needs to be explored, deployed and utilized by major actors and beneficiaries, including the media, civil societies, opposition parties among others. Of particular is the media. In a situation where the culture of secrecy, impunity and disregard for transparency and accountability has been the bane of Nigeria’s growth, development and democratic governance, it is expected that the media will deploy the FoIA and all its arsenals to unravel fake news, spurious claims by government officials and support open and transparent society. Some of the ways the Act has been used by media include the fact that:

FoI Used to report abuse and executive recklessness:

 News Media Association (NMA) said that “Without the FOIA, our national press would not have been able to report the abuse by MPs of their tax-payer funded expenses; cracks in the nuclear reactor at Hinkey Point; that RAF pilots have been taking parts in airstrikes in Syria; the persistent attempts Prince Charles to lobby the government; and the neglect of older people by the social care system.  According to them, “Local and regional papers have also used the Act to unearth buried police reports on child grooming; allegations of financial mismanagement in town halls; the issuing of taxi licenses to sex offenders; and the detention of metal healths in police cells because of a shortage of hospital beds. 

It’s Crucial to Media Professionalism: 

FoI is crucial for ease of media professionalism. Omenogo Veronica Mejabi et al (2017, citing Offiong (2013), said “the FOI Act was enacted in Nigeria to enhance media professionalism so that journalists will be free to “dig” and “pry” in order to collect information freely and publish without hindrance”. This is very important because, without free access to the right information, the media cannot perform its constitutional role of monitoring and making government accountable to the people.

It Enhances Investigative Journalism: 

In Nigerian, FoIA has been used to investigate critical issues bedevilling some sectors of our national life. For instance, the Social-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), the Enough-is-Enough (EiE) and BudgIT have made a request from the Nigerian Army, asking the Major General Buratai Tukur to provide information on spending on military operation across the country, particularly in the Northeast (Vanguard, Jan. 14, 2019). Having done this, Nigerian media have benefited by latching on information retrieved from government agencies by these civil organisations.

As also reported by the New York Times (July 21, 2018), “How Times Reporters Use the Freedom of Information Act”,

      Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for the Times who is currently focused    

      on environmental regulations under the Trump administration, is a  

      seasoned and regular FOIA-wielder. Recently, he has used the law to get

      correspondence between government agency officials and players in the

      industries they regulate, as he did for a story that came out in March about

      the rollback of offshore drilling safety and environmental regulations under

      the Trump administration.

FoI Engenders Mass Participation through the Media: 

Experts have observed that FoI is really very important, as a tool for the media to source for adequate information on political and electoral stakeholders, particularly during the electoral process. Politicians and key state actors running for political positions during an election are mostly averse to disclosing useful and adequate information about their personal and political life, as prospective public servants. In the absence of this, citizens’ participation is often hampered. While many feel disappointed and confused, a great majority become shortchanged as they go to the polls, poorly informed.  To correct this, FoIA becomes highly imperative for political reporters to be deployed to compel such individuals to comply so that the media can adequately inform the citizens. 

It’s Vital To breaking big stories: On the international scene, investigative reporters, Guy Basnett and Paul McNamara (formerly of Open World News, now Channel 4 News) said they have used the Freedom of Information Act to find great stories. According to them, “We regularly break big stories through FoI. Stories the authorities would rather you not know. Stories with impact, and stories that affect real change.” Some of the big stories that have made real impact through the FOIA, according to them include:

·         How hospitals in the UK were incinerating miscarried and aborted foetuses as clinical waste, sometimes in waste-to-energy power plants (The Sunday Times, 23 March 2014)

·          We discovered trigger-happy police officers are using 50,000-volt Taser stun guns on children, including a mentally ill 12-year-old girl (Sunday Mirror, 2 June, 2013)

·          We’ve shown how councils waste millions in public money (The Sunday Times, 16 June, 2013)

·          How police officers avoid sexual abuse investigations by resigning (The Sunday Times, 24 April, 2014); hospitals secretly stored the remains of dead children for years (Daily Telegraph, 18 March, 2014)

·          And how vulnerable children – even babies – have routinely vanished from council care (The Sunday Times, 8 June, 2014).

It’s been a viable weapon of the media: As corroborated by Matthew Osa-Oghogho (2015), it is “Undoubtedly this Act is a viable weapon in the hands of the media and civil society groups. They can take advantage of it to access any information they require in the course of ‘over-sighting’ government”.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that despite the significance of the FoIA, research has shown that its effective use by the Nigerian media has been drastically low. As it is obvious in this study, media in other clime have greatly tapped into it and the impacts have been unimaginable. The chances that FOI will contribute to greater transparency increase with greater and more effective use by civil society members, including activists, the media, and political opposition parties. These groups can use FOI to ask and answer significant questions about the workings, practices, processes, and decisions of government and its subsidiary actors. Experts have claimed that “Information obtained through FOI can contribute to public understandings of government activities, societal problems, and social injustices. Efforts are needed to increase public awareness of information rights, to simplify and strengthen FOI procedures, and to address its barriers and challenges.”

The ability of the media to explore FOI law to facilitate more transparent governance is not in doubt. They need strong and effective administrative capacity and will, efficient supervisory mechanisms. For instance, there is a wide range of instances where Nigerian journalists have shown a lack of interest, will and enough professional eagerness to source for credible and verifiable information for investigative reporting.

Most often journalists claim that the time, and funds needed to make such request and insist on its compliance is hardly there. Hence, they back down following a little let down by government agencies and their officials.

It’s therefore, recommended that just like each ministry and agency of the Federal government has the FoI desk, media houses should also ensure such desk is domicile in-house for the purpose of paying adequate attention to request made by journalist, through the FoI. This will guarantee access to information, needed for improving on the social, economic and development needs of the populace.

Raji Rasaq, head of media monitoring, IPC (rajirasaki2015@gmail.com)