Public interest should be the yardstick when balancing citizens' right to information concerning governance and state need to safeguard sensitive information.
The RTI Act is a crucial tool for promoting transparency and accountability in Bangladesh.
The eruption of hostility surrounding the submission of a simple RTI request to a public official was uncalled for
The RTI law has been kept alive over the years largely through the efforts of a few dedicated NGOs and die-hard RTI activists.
In the last few months, we have received some very encouraging feedback from users of the RTI law about the Information Commission's work.
Bangladesh’s High Court has asked the authorities of a public university to allow pregnant and married female students to remain in the dormitories for the time being
Through the RTI Commission of Sri Lanka, citizens could weight in on matters impacting the nation.
Indications of the growing maturity of RTI Act users and the increasing willingness of public officials to abide by its provisions are indeed welcome developments.
Can public officials ever become transparent in their work and feel accountable to citizens?
RTI Act is one of our most powerful instruments to hold the government accountable.
Over the last two decades, most of South Asia has adopted right to information (RTI) laws, also known as freedom of information (FOI) or access to information (A2I) laws.
As authoritarianism creeps in across the world, the ideals of participatory democracy and representative governance have taken a back seat once again in many countries.
Competitive examinations are a long-standing and important fact of life for our youth entering public service. But few know that the Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2009 can play an effective role to ensure that these exams are transparent and fair.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of the light.”
Yet the RTI Act is hardly known for being put to use in significant numbers. It has so far worked mainly with the marginalised and disadvantaged communities because of the help of NGOs and activists. The educated and the middle classes are yet to be fired by the powerful reach of the law.
