Sierra Leone: Pass Freedom of Information Bill

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT AI Index: AFR 51/001/2012 2 April 2012 Sierra Leone: Pass Freedom of Information Bill The government of Sierra Leone should urgently pass the pending Freedom of Information Bill (FOI), the Freedom of Information Coalition Sierra Leone (FOICSL), Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International said today. [...] The government and Parliament should show the necessary political will to pass the FOI bill into law. [...] The executive and legislature in Sierra Leone have traded accusations that the other is to blame for the hold-up in enacting the legislation. [...] Regardless of the reason for the delay, the government should present a united front and show the necessary political will to ensure that the bill is passed into law, the organizations said. [...] In 2009, he told the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists and a representative of the Freedom of Information Coalition, “Like the anti-corruption law, I want to pass the best FOI law in Africa.” In the 2007 Manifesto, the All People’s Congress stated that “the principles of transparency and accountability and the elimination of corrupt practices are generally recognized as indispensable attribu