Right To Information Act In Nepal

There may be many definitions of 'information' but all of them give te primary meaning of the word as 'to know about something'.The fact that being infrmed means getting to know something is translated into applied terminology since 'right to information'(RTI) is sometimes called 'right to know'.

In Nepal it was media community who has been lobbying for RTI law since the restoration of democracy in 1990.The goverment did submit a RTI bill draft to parliament in 1992;however,it had to be withdrawn due to strong opposition.The Federation of Nepalese Journalists(FNJ) and Nepal Press(NPI) put the issue on the agenda again in 2000 but there was no political will in the parliament to prepare and pass the law.Nepal's 2006 Interim Constitution has a provision for the right to information in article 27,in the chapter on fundamental rights.However,lack of specific regulation impeded people from exercising this fundamental right.Therefore,the freedom forum took an initiative and has submitted draft of RTI bill to the government but it had to be withdrawn because it failed to meet the legal standards.After that joint secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communication, Ratna Raj Pandey,as a coordinator,formed a task force,which included representatives from the FNJ and othe media related bodies to review the drat bill and after the revision the draft document was again submitted to the government.It was passed by the parliament on 18 July,as Right to Information Act 2007.

The mass media were associated strongly with the RTI.They have been,too some extent,trying to unveil the wrongdoings of the public bodies.Journalists and watchdog NGOs can use RTI Act to expose,on the behalf of the society,misconduct in the government and help root it out.But it has to be understood that RTI is the human right and being such every person is eligible to exercise it.Journalists as citizens themselves are not an exception but the situation inwhich tey have priviledge access to information is unacceptable.On the other hand,journalistic profession is specific and there is social expectation that will be watchful and expose any miscondut especially in public bodies.

The mass media are the information business but there must be clear distinction between right to information and press freedom or freedom of expression;though all are are important prerequisites of democratic system.It should be also clear that the information accessed rmains mostly in the domain of executive branch of administration.Since independent judiciary is one of the warrants of functioning democracy it is protected to big extent from outside pressure and has mre developed internal system of accountability revision.The legislature is composed of social representatives already trusted with social confidence through electrol process,accountable to the voters and being in constant contact with the citizens.Hence in the case of parliament the information can be access on different basis.Nevertheless al thrtee branches of administration are compelld to operate in transparent mode and to provide easily accessible,updated infrmatin about their functions and procedures.