Information is power and access to it is your right

The well-known dictum that Knowledge is Power needs no elucidation. If you ask how the world has advanced and is advancing in science, technology and in all other fields of human activities the inevitable answer is that it is the massive explosion of human knowledge. In its effect the explosion has been so comprehensive and pervasive that there is hardly any aspect of life or any sphere of human activity which has not been affected by the ever-increasing expansion of the frontiers of human knowledge.
Generally speaking, we gather knowledge by means of the five senses we have been endowed with. However, many people believe that we also gain knowledge through intuition or some other paranormal or supernatural ways. Life without knowledge is inconceivable and human civilisation has been made possible by all sorts of knowledge humankind have acquired since the dawn of human history. Knowledge helps us to make our life easy, comfortable and meaningful. A saying of the prophet of Islam defines knowledge as:
''Acquire knowledge. It enableth its possessor to distinguish right from wrong; it lighteth the way to Heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude, our companion when friendless; it guideth us to happiness; it sustaineth us in misery; it is an ornament amongst friends, and an armour against enemies''.
Knowledge and information are inter-connected. Generally speaking, the more information we gather the more knowledgeable we become. As the branches of knowledge are numerous the information that we need to muster to conduct the various activities of life is of numerous sorts.
The gradual accumulation of information leads to gradual increase in knowledge. Human knowledge is ever increasing as time advances. However, what is of utmost importance is how we make use of knowledge in all fields of human activities. Critical to our use of knowledge is what it known as ''wisdom''. An old proverb says 'Knowledge Comes, Wisdom Lingers'. If the pursuit of knowledge and the use of it for human welfare is not conditioned by wisdom, knowledge gained through hard labour is unlikely to be of much use to mankind at individual, social or national level.
As time passes, science and technology make progress and consequently the frontiers of human knowledge expand. Life has become an endless process of discovery of new information of varied sorts. The development of science and technology and the ever-increasing human knowledge do make it imperative for us to seek and amass large amounts of information in numerous fields of knowledge. The information technology we have been able to acquire has come to our aid in our search and accumulation of information. The present-day world is often called the age of information and the Information Technology (IT) rules the world we now live in. We need information for whatever we engage in now. Information is indeed power and without this power we will find ourselves in a helpless condition.
The sorts of information that this write-up is concerned with are such that we need to enrich the quality of our lives and which have to do with our various rights as citizens of the country, some of which are called human rights, some called fundamental or constitutional rights. The knowledge of such rights is fundamental to securing decent and meaningful life for every one of us. For this purpose we as citizens need to be equipped with adequate information in all matters affecting our lives and moreover we need to update ourselves on all matters that affect us in the conduct of our lives and in the exercise of our rights as citizens of the country. What we need is an unfettered right to information held by public agencies and authorities and the regular flow of information must not be impeded by any authorities or agencies. The access to information necessary for good living ought to be guaranteed by the law.
Article 7 of the Constitution of Bangladesh declares that
''All powers in the Republic belong to the people, and their exercise on behalf of the people shall be effected only under, and by the authority of, this constitution''
The solemn idea that underlies Article 7 is that the source of all powers with which the state machinery is invested with is the people and the powers are exercised by the various organs of the state machinery on behalf of the people (or we can say ''in the name of the people under and by the authority of the Constitution). Article 7 sub-article (2) declares the constitution ''as the solemn expression of the will of the people, the supreme law of the country ....''. Part II of the Constitution lays down the fundamental principles of state policy and article 11 declares as follows:
''Democracy and human rights: 11. The Republic shall be a democracy in which fundamental human rights and freedoms and respect for the dignity and worth of the human person shall be guaranteed ......''.
So, both democracy and fundamental human rights are embedded in article 11. Article 19 lays down that the state shall endevour to ensure equality of opportunity to all citizens in all spheres of national life. According to article 21 it is the duty of every citizens to observe the Constitution and the laws, to maintain discipline, to perform public duties and to protect public property. Furthermore, it declares that ''every person in the service of the Republic has a duty to strive at all times to serve the people.
Part III (Fundamental rights) of the Constitution of Bangladesh contains articles 26 to 47-A. The fundamental rights enumerated in Part III are of vital importance for the citizens of the country and such rights are sine qua non for civilised life. Such rights are intended to ensure human dignity of a citizen. The fundamental rights are legally enforceable under article 102 read with article 44 of the constitution. It is noteworthy that the right to information has not been declared a fundamental right in the constitution. If a right is declared as a fundamental right in a constitution, it may also be called a constitutional right and such a right, if denied or interfered with by any authority or state agency, a citizen can avail himself of the constitutional provisions for the enforcement of his right.
The right to information is a broad concept in that there all sorts of information that we need to gather for various purposes of life and some types of information are more important than others. We need information of some types which are related to our legal rights. Ideally speaking as citizens of a country, we should have access to all sorts of information that concern us someway or the other or in which we may be interested for some reason. There are types of information to which a citizen may not be given access to by the state and the most important of them is the information which relates to national security and it is considered that in the interest of national security such information ought not to be disclosed to citizens at large.
A point ought to be made here that in this discourse on the right to information we are concerned with information held by public agencies. Although the right to obtain such information has not been declared a fundamental right in our constitution, a moment's reflection will make it plain that the meaningful exercise of our fundamental rights mentioned in the constitution may be negated or affected to the detriment of citizens' interests if they are not provided with access to such information which will enable them to exercise the fundamental rights guaranteed to them.
As many as ninety states have recognised the right of individuals to obtain information held by public agencies. The right to information has become a universally recognised right in almost all democratic, and even numerous non-democratic, states. The issues raised by the legal recognition of this right have become subject of a lively public debate among jurists, political scientists, and civil rights associations. Although the right to freedom of information has been generally recognised in majority countries of the world, specific aspects relating to its precise scope and manner of implementation remain controversial and continue to be debated in international tribunals, United Nations commissions, and international organisations
such as constitutional courts, as well as in the academic literature on the subject.
Like many other states of the world, the right to information held by government, autonomous and local authorities of our country has been talked about, discussed and deliberated by the intelligentsia of our country for quite a long time. In response to the demand of the citizenry for access to information held by various authorities, the last caretaker government promulgated The Right to Information Ordinance 2008 (Ord No. L of 2008). After the assumption of the state power by the elected government in January 2009, the Right to Information Ordinance 2008 was repealed and in its place the Right to Information Act 2009 was enacted by the Parliament.
It is impossible to discuss the various provisions of the Right to Information Act 2009 in details within the limited space of this article. Those provisions of the Act which deal with the rights of the ordinary citizens to obtain information and to enforce the rights are touched upon in this write-up.
The preamble of The Right to Information Act 2010 is re-assuring indeed. The Preamble declares:
''Whereas freedom of thought, conscience and speech is recognised in the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh as one of the fundamental rights and the right to information is an inalienable part of freedom of thought, conscience and speech ; and
Whereas all powers of the Republic belong to the people, and it is necessary to ensure the right to information for the empowerment of the people; and whereas if the right to information of the people is ensured, the transparency and accountability of all public, autonomous and statutory organisations and of other private institutions constituted or run by government or foreign financing shall increase, corruption of the same shall decrease and good governance of the same shall be established; and
Whereas it is expedient and necessary to make provisions for ensuring transparency and accountability in all public, autonomous and statutory organisations and in other private institutions constituted or run by government or foreign financing;
Section 1 provides that (a) all the sections except sections 8, 24 and 25 shall be deemed to have come into force on 20 October, 2008 and (b) sections 8, 24 and 25 shall come into force on 1 July 2009.
The Act defines the expression ''information'' in Section 2(f) as follows;
''(f)       ''information'' includes any memo, book, design, map, contract, data, log book, order, notification, document, sample, letter, report, accounts, project proposal, photograph, audio, video, drawing, painting, film, any instrument done through electronic process, machine readable record, and any other documentary material regardless of its physical form or characteristics, and any copy thereof in relation to the constitution, structure and official activities of any authority :
Provided that it shall not include note-sheets or copies of note-sheets;''
''The right the information'' is also defined as meaning the right to obtain information from any authority
Under the Information Act 2009 a commission known as the Information Commission has been established under section 11 of the Act ''for carrying out the purposes of this Act and in accordance with its provisions''. Section 11 further provides that the ''the Information Commission shall be an independent body corporate having perpetual succession and a common seal with power, subject to the provisions of this Act, to acquire, hold and dispose of property, both movable immovable and shall by its own name sue and be sued. Subsection 3 of section 11 says that the head office of the Information Commission shall be at Dhaka and the Commission may, if necessary, establish branch offices anywhere in Bangladesh''.
The constitution of the Commission is spelt out in section 12 and it lays down that ''the Commission shall consist of the Chief Information Commissioner and 2 (two) other Commissioner, at least 1 (one) of whom shall be a woman''. Section 12 further provides that ''the
Chief Information Commissioner shall be the Chief Executive of the Commission''.
Section 13 of the Information Act is an important section and it sets forth the powers and functions of the Information Commission. It seems that a faithful observance of and compliance with the various provisions of section 13 will go a long way towards securing the right of the citizens to information. Subsection (1) of section 13 is an enabling provision, that is conferring a right upon any citizen to file a complaint to the Information Commission. The grounds on which such an application may be made are enumerated as follows:
''(a) non-appointment of an officer-in-charge by any authority, or its refusal to accept a request for information ;
 (b)   refusal of any request for information ;
 (c) a request for information has been left unattended or no information received within the time-limit specified under this Act ;
 (d)  if the applicant is asked for a fee or compelled to pay an amount of fee which he considers to be unreasonable ;
 (e) if the applicant is provided with incomplete information or such information that appears to be misleading or false ; and
 (f)  any other matter relating to requesting or obtaining information under this Act.''
When a complaint is filed the Information Commission (IC) shall receive, inquire into and dispose of it.  The Commission may of its own accord or upon a complaint conduct an inquiry regarding a complaint raised under this Act and in carrying out the inquiry it may exercise powers enjoyed by a civil court to issue summons to enforce attendance of persons and compel them to give oral or written evidence on oath and to produce documents etc. The Commission has the power to examine on spot any information relating to a complaint kept in the custody of any authority. The commission has a wide range of functions to carry out in respect of the preservation, management and dissemination of information of public utility and in respect of how the legal right to information granted to citizens may be protected and enforced. The Information Commission may make recommendations to the government for the effective implementation of the right to information by indicating the impediments to the preservation of the right. It may publicise the issues relating to preservations and implementation of the right and to increase the citizens' awareness about the right. Moreover the Information Commission is required by the 2009 Act to establish a web portal for Bangladesh to ensure the right to information.
Section 4 of the Information Act 2009 declares that every citizen shall have the right to information from the authority and the authority shall, on demand from a citizen, be bound to provide him with the information. An authority is defined as any organisation constituted in accordance with the constitution of Bangladesh, any ministry, division or office, any statutory body or institution, any private organisation run by government financing or with aid in grant from the government fund, any private organisation run by foreign aid in grant and any organisation or institution that undertakes public functions in accordance with any contract made on behalf of the Government or made with any public organisation or institution.
As to the preservation of information by an authority section 5 says that ''in order to ensure the right to information under this Act, every authority shall prepare a catalogue and index of all information and preserve it in an appropriate manner''. It further says that ''every authority shall, within a reasonable time-limit preserve in computer all such information as it thinks fit for preservation in computer, and shall connect them through a country-wide net work to facilitate access to information''. In this regard the IC is required to frame instructions in the form of regulations which must be followed by every authority for the preservation and management of information. The publication of all useful information is also important and in this regard section 6 of the Right to Information Act 2009 requires every authority to publish and publicise all information pertaining to any decision taken, proceeding or activity executed or proposed by indexing them in such a manner as may be easily accessible to the citizens. As the section provides, no authority shall conceal any information or limit its easy access and every authority shall publish a report every year which shall contain particulars of its organisational structure, activities, responsibility of the officer and employees, the classification of all information lying with it, description of the terms and conditions under which a citizen may get services from the authorities in obtaining any license, permit, grant, consent, approval or other benefits particulars of the facilities ensuring right to information of the citizens and the full name, designation, address, and, in case where applicable, fax number and e-mail address of the assigned officer. If the authority frames any policy or takes any important decision, it is required to publish all such policies and decisions and, if necessary, to explain the reasons and causes in support of such policies and decisions. The section says that such a report shall be made available free of charge for public information and its copies shall be stocked for sale at nominal price. Furthermore, the authority shall publish and publicise the matters of public interest through press note or through any other means.
There is a list of the types of information which are not required to be provided by any authority holding any of such information. The list includes information, if disclosed, will cause threat to the security, integrity and sovereignty of Bangladesh, information relating to any aspect of foreign policy that may affect the existing relationship  with any foreign country, such information the disclosure of which may harm a particular individual or organisation, any information that may, if disclosed, obstruct theenforcement of law or the judicial process and any information protected by the law.
How to obtain information from an authority is dealt with in section 8 of the Act. Section 8 stipulates that a person may apply to the officer-in-charge requesting for information either in writing or through electronic means or through e-mail stating the name, address of the person making the request, in applicable cases, his fax number and e-mail address, correct and clear description of the information sought for, the description of the modes how he wants to have the information etc. The request for information should be made in a form printed by the authority, or as the case may be, in prescribed format or on a piece of white paper, or in electric form or through e-mail. An officer-in-charge means any officer appointed under section 10 of the Right to Information Act. Section 10 lays down that all authorities shall appoint a designated officer for each of the units for providing information according to the provisions of this Act. The expression ''information providing unit'' is defined in the Act to include head office, regional office of any department, directorate or office attached to or under any ministry, division or office of the Government AND head office, divisional office, regional office of an authority. Section 10 subsection 4 requires all authorities to inform the Commission of the names, designation, address, fax number and e-mail addresses of the designated officers appointed under the section within 15 days from the date of such appointment.
On receipt of a request under section 8 the designated officer is under a legal obligation in terms of section 9 to provide the information to the applicant within 20 working days from the date of receiving the request. If the officer-in-charge, due to any reason, fails to provide the information sought for, he shall inform the applicant the reasons thereof in writing within ten working days. If a request made under section 8 is relating to the life and death, arrest and release from jail of any person, the officer-in-charge shall provide preliminary information thereof within 24 hours.
Section 24 and 25 of the Right to Information Act 2009 contain provisions concerning making of complaints to the Information Commission and appeal to the appellate authority. If any person fails to receive information within the time specified in section 9 or is aggrieved by a decision of the officer-in-charge he may, within thirty days from the expiry of such period or, as the case may be, from the receipt of such a decision, prefer an appeal to the appellate authority. An ''appellate authority'' means
 (i) in case of an information providing unit, the administrative head of its immediate superior office ; or
 (ii)  if there is no superior office of such unit, the administrative head of that unit.
The appellate authority must within fifteen days of the receipt of the appeal direct, section 24 provides, the officer-in-charge concerned to supply the appellant the requested information or dismiss the appeal if it is not considered fit for acceptance.
Section 25 lays down that a person may lodge a complaint to the Information Commission on any of the following grounds, namely
 (a)     if he gets no information under subsection 1 of section 13 referred to above ;
 (b)     if he is aggrieved by the decision on his appeal under section 24 ;
 (c)     if he gets no information within the time limit mentioned in section 24 or as the case may be, gets no decision about providing information.
A complaint ought to be made within the time specified in Section 25, although for any reasonable cause shown by the complainant for not lodging the complaint within the time, the IC may accept the appeal even after the expiry of the time. In the event the Information Commission is satisfied upon a complaint or otherwise that any authority or any officer-in-charge has failed to do an act or has done an act that was not necessary to do in accordance with the provisions of the Act, it may take action against such authority or officer-in-charge. During the enquiry into any complaint the authority or the officer-in-charge, against whose decision the complaint is lodged, is entitled to present arguments in support of his decision.
The time limit for the disposal of a complaint is not to exceed seventy five days inclusive of any extended time. In disposing of a complaint the IC has wide powers including the power to direct the authority or the officer-in-charge to provide the requested information, to give compensation for any loss or damage, to impose fines for any failure on their part, to keep the decision of the authority in force and to reject the complaint.
Section 32 provides that the Right to Information Act 2009 does not apply to the organisations and institutions which are involved in state security and intelligence mentioned in the Schedule to the Act. However this section shall not apply to such information that relates to corruption and violation of human rights in such organisations and institutions.
Going by the wisdom of the proverb 'Something is better than Nothing' I should say that The Right to Information Act 2009 is a welcome piece of legislation. The Right to Information that the citizens should enjoy is now based on a legal footing. Without conceding the fact that the Act may be improved upon in future, the immediate question is: how successful has the Act been in the implementation of the noble objectives declared in the Act ? The Right to Information Act can be a powerful instrument for the governed to hold the government accountable, observed in an editorial comment made in a national daily. Despite the crucial role the Act can play to shed light on the corrupt and unlawful practices of politicians and public and private institutions, journalists in the country have so for been largely unenthusiastic about using it. Even five years after its enactment RTI has reached only 5% of the population. It is usually argued that the demand for information is miniscule because there is hardly any awareness of the benefits RTI can deliver to the users. It has been rightly suggested that media outlets should encourage the use of RTI and build the capacity of journalists so that they may challenge individuals and institutions through investigative journalism using RTI. Such journalism will no doubt reveal the problems in its implementation and non-compliance on the part of government and non-government authorities. It is true that media and public outcry can oblige authorities and institutions to act accordingly or at any rate compel the Information Commission and the government to take appropriate legal steps against non-compliance.
Publicity of the Right to Information Act amongst the citizens through the adoption of pro-active roles by all those involved in the media world is essential. The publicity should be carried out and sustained to build awareness of the people about the legal rights they now have to obtain all sorts of information from public and, in some cases, private organisations. The awareness will make the citizens assertive of their rights and the authorities and officials of the organisation holding information apprehensive of public outcry and threats of legal action in the event of their non-compliance with the legal requirements they are under legal obligation meet in terms of the Right to Information Act.
Keeping in view the high objectives of the RTI we need to ensure the easy availability of useful information to the citizens. As citizens of a sovereign country we all should keep ourselves vigilant at all times of the infringement of the provisions of the 2009 Act by any authorities or organisations. The Information Commission, as a regulatory body, has a solemn duty to see that the various authorities and organisation, government, statutory or local duly comply with the requirements laid down in the Act and when they discover any default on the part of any official instantaneous action ought to be taken by the Information Commission. We all have a common duty to perform for the common good and a very vital role can be played by the Judiciary of the country in the process of adjudication of disputes between private individuals or between any authority and an individual so that the right to information guaranteed by the law is exercised by the citizens without any hindrance and in case of the denial of such right such adjudication should ensure justice to the citizens. No citizen should be prejudiced in any way for lack of information not disclosed to him by any authority or institution holding such information.
Unhindered supply of information relating to the various affairs of the state machinery to the citizens is, arguably, a sine qua non for good governance and the Rule of Law without which we cannot ensure a civilised society.
The more informed the citizens become the more conscious and assertive they grow about the legal rights they are entitled to under the constitution and the general laws of the country. An informed, educated and enlightened citizenry plays a vital role in preserving the high ideals of constitutionalism, the Rule of Law and administrative justice. As the preamble of the Act says the right to information is an inalienable part of freedom of thought, conscience and speech AND if the right to information of the people is ensured, the transparency and accountability of all public, autonomous and statutory organisations etc. will be ensured.
Let us take the vow to protest against any injustice committed by any authority or organisation engaged in dealing with matters which involve the rights of the citizens because Protest is, as a political thinker said, the only hope of life.
The writer is Barrister-at-Law. He can be reached at: mahahm53@gmail.com