The public often perceives the right of access to information – also called ‘freedom of information’ or ‘the right to know’ – as a media privilege, or a right resevered for journalists. But freedom of information is a universal right for all citizens to seek and receive information held by public bodies. It creates an obligation on governments and public institutions to make information freely available to all people.
In a democracy, the right to know enables transparency and accountability for effective governance, and it is important for citizens’ participation. However, most African governments tend to pursue policies of secrecy rather than those promoting the open disclosure of information. Public officials and civil servants are generally reluctant to disclose information, and often dismiss requests for access to information from citizens. This is especially true for Central African countries, where transparency laws, including legislation on access to information, remain the exception. None of the 21 countries in Africa with general laws on access to information is in Central Africa.
For actors in this region who are involved in the fight against transnational organised crime (TOC) – particularly researchers, civil society organisations and the media – freedom of information is an important aspect of efforts to uncover TOC and understand criminal networks. Yet governments often keep these actors in the dark, and sometimes even treat them as criminals.
Oftentimes, persons involved in transnational criminal activities include government officials. As a result, journalists have been intimidated, arrested, imprisoned and even killed for investigating stories of corruption, money laundering and other forms of organised crime in Central Africa.
The commemoration of the International Day for the Universal Access to Information, also known as the Right to Know Day, which takes place every year on 28 September, provides an opportunity to examine linkages between freedom of information and open societies on the one hand, and the fight against TOC on the other.
Just like closed and opaque societies, TOC negatively affects the rule of law and, by extension, prospects for peace and security. Freedom of information and the fight against TOC can help countries to use their resources to build safe, sustainable and equitable societies for the wellbeing of their citizens. The UN agreed with this when it identified ‘access to information’ among the targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 to promote just, peaceful and strong institutions.
Greater openness would make it possible to better fight TOC in Central Africa. An example can be seen in how contracts are awarded for the exploitation of natural resources such as oil, timber and mining. Such contracts are often concluded in secrecy, with provisions relating to payment, beneficial ownership, and results of environmental impact assessments, for example, known only to government and the contracting multinational company. Greater transparency during the negotiation process, and the general disclosure of contracts, would prevent corrupt practices that are frequently seen in the commodity trading sector.
Access to information in Switzerland, for example, enabled Swiss investigative journalists to uncover a case involving former Gunvor trader Pascal Collard, who admitted to paying bribes to President Denis Sassou Nguesso and his family in exchange for oil trading contracts in the Republic of Congo. This case would not have been possible in Congo itself, where there are no freedom of information laws, and where the country ranked 42/54 and scored 37.4/100 on rule of law in the 2017 Ibrahim Index on African Governance.
Similarly, greater freedom of information would enable better understanding and mitigation of the murky world of fisheries crime. The European Union (EU), for instance, now discloses official data on where vessels from its fleet fish, including private fishing agreements with governments from non-EU coastal states in West and Central Africa. According to marine environmental group Oceana, this makes the EU’s external fishing fleet ‘the most transparent, accountable and sustainable globally’,
Freedom of information is closely connected to transparency laws and the proactive disclosure of information by governments, of which the public expects qualitative data. But as the principal source of official data, governments are often limited, especially in their ability to produce data and make it accessible to users.
In Cameroon, for example, government data are scarce, inaccessible and often outdated. The country’s National Institute of Statistics (INS), the public body responsible for harmonising and disclosing publicly available statistics and information, is under-utilised by government itself. The INS relies on government to commission it to produce statistics on various issues. But information available on its website is generic and old, although ‘important efforts were made recently’, according to Alamine Ousmane Mey, President of the INS Board of Directors.
When ENACT called the NIS to seek specific data on crime in Cameroon, it was asked to follow a bureaucratic process of writing to the director and waiting for an undetermined period of time, without any guarantee that it would receive the requested information.
The Cameroonian government became part of the African Development Bank-sponsored online data portal in 2014, which was promoted as ‘all of Cameroon’s data in one click’. But the portal is only as good as the data fed to it by the INS. Cameroon and other Central African states also lag behind in civil society initiatives to make data comprehensible for citizens’ participation. Examples that have seen some success in this regard include BudgIT and the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism in Nigeria.
Without strong institutional capacity to create, collect and analyse statistics and data, it is difficult carry out empirical research. Timely access to reliable information is crucial in clarifying questions around the scope, impact and extent of TOC.
This situation has been made even more pertinent with the advent of so-called ‘fake news’ and the growth of social media. These phenomena pose new challenges for users of information and data.
The impetus to combat the proliferation of fake news and misinformation, as with the promotion of freedom of information, has come from civil society. Initiatives such as Africa Check were developed ‘to promote accuracy and honesty in public debate and the media in Africa’ through fact-checking.
Those who require information, data and statistics should collaborate to promote greater access to information, and more open societies. Researchers, civil society actors and media practitioners should work together to raise awareness and apply pressure to states to improve access to information, and in this way increase prospects for achieving SDG 16.
Agnes Ebo’o, ENACT Regional Organised Crime Observatory Coordinator – Central Africa, ISS
