New Age: Dhaka: Saturday, September 01, 2018.
Mentioning
that the Right to Information Act is a strong tool for investigative
journalism, speakers at a workshop on Friday urged journalists to widely
exercise it for filing reports.
Shushashoner
Jonno Nagorik and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, with the support of The
Hunger Project, organised the workshop titled Use of RTI in Journalism at Apon
Uddog Foundation building in the city.
Former
chief information commissioner Golam Rahman in his speech said that the fitting
of such a people-friendly law into the current bureaucratic structure and
culture was a big challenge.
‘Right
to information is a citizen’s right and its acknowledgment means their
development,’ he said.
Mentioning
that journalists do not exercise the law much in the country, Golam Rahman
underscored the need for changing the mindset and culture of hiding information
to boost the practice and ensure accountability and arrest corruption.
He
also said private institutions dealing with public money such as private
educational institutions, banks and clinics should also be brought under the
purview of the law.
SHUJAN
secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar, also country director and global vice president
of THP, said there were some information in different sectors which needed to
be looked for and the RTI Act can play a strong role in this regard.
Renowned
journalist Mizanur Rahman Khan said it was not possible to ensure freedom of
speech having a weak democratic practice.
Information
commission director Abdul Hakim and RTI activist Biplab Karmakar also spoke on
the occasion.
Indian
RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak, journalist Kumar Sambhav Srivastava and CHRI
director Sanjoy Hazarika also joined the workshop through videoconferencing and
shared their experiences of using RTI Act in India.
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