The Daily Star: Bangladesh: Sunday,
May 15, 2016.
Media’s power
to shape public opinion is succinctly captured in a story from Peru, dating back
to the 1990s. Alberto Fujimori was the president of Peru then, but the country
was actually run by his Secret Police Chief, Vladimiro Montesinos Torres.
Montesinos did so primarily through bribery and corruption. His vast experience
had helped him know exactly who among the opposition parties, judiciary and
media were the most influential people, and who could be bought with what
amount of money. He managed to control them for several years in this manner
before his government fell. After the fall, the meticulously-kept diary of
Montesinos revealed that he had paid the owner of the most powerful TV station
of Peru five times more money in bribes than he had paid to all the opposition
politicians together. Such is the power of the media over the state.
I shared this
story at a seminar in Dhaka in early May on World Press Freedom Day. The story
appeared to be well-received by the audience, most of whom were journalists or
budding journalists. But I am not sure if my exhortation for greater engagement
of the media with the Right to Information regime had cut much ice with them. I
had made two key points. One, the RTI Act is one of the most important laws of
the land and deserved support from all citizens, including journalists. And
two, the latter would find the law of great value to their job.
On the first
point, people will know about a law if the media talk about it. Unfortunately,
uptake of the law is still slow. All available records indicate that there is
hardly any increase in the number of RTI users over the years: simply because
not enough people know about the law. Here is where the media need to be more
systematically engaged in promoting RTI. By publicising positive outcomes of
RTI interventions in the country, media can nurture the feeble RTI flame.
In many
countries, wide publicity of successful RTI stories has helped its growth. A
news story or feature showing marginalised communities using RTI to access
social safety net programmes would motivate others to use the law. It also
shines a spotlight on public officials who dispense the benefits, encouraging
them to be more careful in exercising their authority. Fear of public
opprobrium is key to changing a corrupt mindset.
Successful
RTI interventions follow a pattern that looks like this: RTI application ?
disclosure of information ? publicity of information? transparency in the work
of public officials? accountability to people. Obtaining information from
government offices through RTI cannot be the main goal of the law. To be
useful, information must lead to change in the behaviour of public officials.
It is important to understand this basic philosophy of the law.
In the
pattern above, the key piece is 'publicity of information'. In countries where
RTI has been effective, as in neighbouring India, media has played a key role
in spreading its value. That media stories have encouraged more Indian citizens
to use the law is evidenced by the fact that more than 5.5 million RTI
applications were made by them to different public authorities at the centre
and in the states last year alone. Compared to this, the Bangladesh average
over the years is around 15,000. This is very discouraging indeed for a nation
of 160 million people.
The least
that the media can, therefore, do is simply to publicise the results of
outstanding RTI interventions gathered from all over the country. Their local
correspondents, based in different parts of the country, could be asked to
collect and report on them on a regular basis. In some countries, best reports
are recognised and rewarded appropriately. This can be done here as well.
On my second
point, RTI is a valuable tool for a free and fair press that holds its
government accountable. Media can use the law for investigative journalism, as
is done in many countries. Investigative reports have brought to light many
corrupt and abusive practices of public offices throughout the world, leading
to important corrective measures. They have also helped to dig up information
that governments normally wish to hide from the public.
Examples from
different countries were cited in my paper to show the type of subjects that
are normally of interest to the public for investigative journalism. It has
been found that well-documented investigative reports, based on information
obtained through RTI, are extremely popular with readers/viewers since, among
other things, their authenticity is normally beyond reproach.
Topics for
investigative journalism depend largely on public interest and national
perspectives. In many countries, a compilation of popular RTI-based
investigative reports is released annually. Following are a few topics culled
from a UK and Scotland compilation:
· Treatment of soldiers affected by Gulf-War Syndrome and
arrangement for their treatment.
· Number of patients affected by mistreatment in public
hospitals and measures taken for their compensation
· Efforts made to bring down waiting periods for patients
in different government hospitals.
· Government measures to help public universities overcome
financial crisis.
· Involvement of police forces in crimes and measures taken
over the years.
· [For more topics/stories see:
www.cfoi.org.uk/pdf/FOIStories2005.pdf ]
RTI-based
investigative stories from India are closer to our realities in Bangladesh. One
Indian journalist, who is now well-known to the RTI world, is Mr. Syamlal
Yadav, Associate Editor of the weekly news magazine India Today. He and his
colleagues made one RTI intervention a day to different offices in India. One
popular intervention related to his application to 60 ministries over a period
of six months. The responses he received had revealed that in three and a half
years, 71 ministers of the Central Government had made foreign trips, covering
a total distance which was 256 times the distance to go around the world. The
report created such a stir that the then government had to issue letters to all
the ministries to stringently follow official rules for foreign and local
travels. It led to significant savings in travel costs for the country.
Another
outstanding piece of investigative journalism by Mr. Yadav revealed that over
59 million life insurance policies under LIC of India had been permanently closed
over a period of seven years because of non-payment of premiums by
policy-holders. He then asked to know whether the huge amount of money
remaining in their accounts was returned to policy holders. LIC refused to
disclose the information claiming secrecy. The Central Information Commission
agreed with LIC. This prompted Mr. Yadav to make the information public. Less
than a month later, LIC put an advertisement in local newspapers, informing
policy holders whose accounts were thus permanently closed that they could
revive their policies. This is unique in insurance history.
Such
inspiring stories show the immense power of the media in making RTI a
nation-wide reality - and the power of RTI to serve the media in the pursuit of
truth. Our lawmakers have made an excellent law. But we need our media to help
ensure that people know their rights.
The
writer is Chairman of Research Initiatives, Bangladesh (RIB). His paper Access
to Information by Journalists: The Right to Information Act 2009, written in
Bengali, can be downloaded from: www.rib-rtibangladesh.org.
Email:
rib@citech-bd.com
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