The Ghana National Coalition on the Right to Information has expressed concern over the manner in which the government is rushing to pass the Right to Information Bill without regard to due constitutional process as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.

At a media briefing in Accra on February 16, 2010 the Coalition said "there has been no transparency in the process leading to the tabling of the Bill in parliament" and that the Ghanaian public have not been afforded the opportunity of "seeing, reading and analyzing" the bill before is soon be laid before parliament for the first time.

Speaking at the briefing, Professor Kwame Karikari, a member of the Coalition, said Article 106, (2) of the Ghanaian Constitution makes it mandatory for such a Bill to be published in a Gazette for a period of fourteen days before it is introduced in parliament. In this case, however, it was only a notification that was given to the government publisher and not the full details as required by law.

Prof. Karikari disclosed that "when the coalition learnt about the notification of the bill in the Gazette, it went to the government publisher on several occasions to purchase a copy but was informed that the Bill had not yet been printed".

A member of the Coalition, Akoto Ampaw, a legal practitioner and another leading member of the coalition, described parliament's actions as a 'fundamental misstep' but added that the house alone should not take the responsibility for the 'misstep. '

"It is not necessarily an error of Parliament. It is an error on the part of those who introduced the Bill". "Parliament is a creature of the constitution. We expect that they take the necessary steps to correct the error. If in the unlikely event they are not persuaded, the coalition will discuss the matter to see the next line of action," he warned.

The Coalition's call followed the first reading of the Bill by the Ghanaian parliament on February 5, 2010.

The MFWA is a regional independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Accra. It was founded in 1997 to defend and promote the rights and freedom of the media and all forms of expression.