Campbell MEMBERS OF the public will soon have greater access to Government information, according to Information Minister, Colin Campbell.
The Minister told reporters at yesterday's weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House yesterday that Cabinet has given its approval for the tabling in Parliament of the Access to Information Bill. It will be tabled next Tuesday, December 4.
Mr. Campbell said a joint select committee of the House of Representatives will be set up to examine the proposed legislation after which it will be debated. The aim is to have the Bill passed into law by March 2002, the Information Minister said.
The administrative functions relating to the implementation of the Act are to be carried out by a new Access to Information Unit to be established in the Jamaica Archives and Records Depart-ment. It will begin operation in January.
Formerly the Freedom of Information Act, the Bill was renamed to prevent confusion about the public's right to information. Former Information Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson said freedom of information implied that there was unlimited right to information while access to information suggested that there were conditions attached to the release of that information.
Information relating to issues of national security and matters relating to foreign governments will be classified, Mr. Campbell noted. In terms of national security, the information may be made public after seven years.
"What this law seeks to do is to set out the procedures by which you will gain the information as well as the various channels and the appeals process where the authority does not make a document available," he explained.
The Bill, which has missed several deadlines since the early 1990s, has already gone through the consultative process. It will provide members of the public with the right to information generated and/or held by public authorities and companies as specified in the Act.
It does not however apply to documents from the Governor-General and his staff; the judicial functions of a court, the holder of a judicial office connected with the court; or other specified offices related to the court.
