5 May 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa) has welcomed the commitment to media freedoms shown by President Armando Guebuza in the speech he gave on Saturday, World Press Freedom Day.
On that day, Maputo became the capital of international freedom of expression. It was chosen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to host the ceremony at which the 2008 UNESCO Press Freedom Prize was delivered to campaigning Mexican journalist, Lidia Cacho Ribeiro.
During his speech Guebuza reaffirmed the Mozambican government's commitment to the constitutionally enshrined values of freedom of expression and of the press, and of the right to information, stressing that "better informed citizens become more useful to themselves and to the nation".
MISA welcomed Guebuza's declaration that "Freedom of the press provides an environment favourable to the promotion of self-esteem, to deepening the sense of citizenship and ownership, and to consolidating multi-party, participatory and inclusive democracy".
A statement from MISA-Mozambique stated that "at the highest level of state, the country has unequivocally restated its commitment to maintain, broaden and gradually consolidate the indispensable legal, institutional and technical conditions for ever greater access to information of public interest by citizens".
MISA believed that Guebuza's speech strengthens "the political conditions for adopting a specific law on access to information held by public bodies, which is essential under the current public sector reform".
Although access to information is guaranteed under the Mozambican constitution, this principle has never been regulated by law - and thus many officials have continued to refuse requests for information. MISA stressed that a freedom of information law, granting access to official sources of information, is indispensable for achieving Guebuza's vision of "citizens useful to themselves and to the nation".
After three years of extensive public debate, MISA submitted its own draft freedom of information bill to the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, in November 2005, in the hope that the Assembly might adopt it, or use it as a contribution to its own bill on access to information.
Two and a half years have passed, and still there is no sign of the Assembly tabling freedom of information on its agenda.
MISA adds that the declaration approved in Maputo on Saturday, at the end of a UNESCO press freedom conference, calls on all UNESCO member states to provide legal guarantees to the right to information, which would ensure greater openness to citizens by the public administration.
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