Media and right to information

INTRODUCTION
o As a developing country, the citizens of India need to carry or have
the full disclosure of information relation to the development of the
nation.
o Lack of transparency is prone to create doubts and suspicious to
the govt. needs to provide people an access to information.
o It’s the duty of a responsible govt. to provide all relevant and
important information publicly.
o Barriers to information facilitates clandestine(secret/illegal)
deals, arbitrary decisions, manipulations and embezzlements.
(Crime of secretly taking possession of money not belong to the
person taking)
o In a welfare State where the Govt. exercises vast powers which
affects the economic interest of the public, there is every possibility
that the rights and liberties of the people may be at stake. Thus,
information dissemination among the public is necessary. Here
comes the role of the press or the MEDIA- to aid for spreading
information.

MEDIA-Meaning
Media is being considered as the fourth Estate and fourth Pillar
of our democratic society after the Legislature, Executive &
Judiciary.
It has got enormous responsibility so far as establishing a
relationship between the Govt. and the governed beings.
It has become so crucial part of our lives that we are heavily
dependent on the media coverage for getting or spreading
information in a mass dealing.
Media keeps the people awakened and there is no denying to
the fact that it has become one of the major instruments of
social change.
In a democratic set up, it’s the media which strengthens the
democratic norms and values and also accelerates the pace of
development.

RIGHT TO INFORMATION
  RTI is seen as the key to strengthening participatory democracy
and ensuring more people- centred development.
 Nearly 70 countries around the world have now adopted
comprehensive Freedom of Information Acts to facilitate access
to records held by govt. bodies and another 50 countries have
pending efforts.
 Earlier the Govt. was able to conceal all its actions & policies
which the people were supposed to know/ be informed.
 There was the “Official Secrets Act, 1923” during British Raj to
guard against activities considered detrimental to their rule or to
hide official documents.
 Later on, it was recognised that Govt. is accountable for its deeds.
-No misuse of power should be there.
-Openness in its functioning
-Transparency in dealings
-Detail exposure to Public
-For curtailing corruption
e.g., protests, rallies, strikes are check on govt. activities &
corruption. (This is happening in pvt. Sectors as well).

 The phase ‘RIGHT TO INFORMATION’ denotes that we have that

freedom to know or get known about any kind of information
unless prohibited by law.
BACKGROUND/ EVOLUTION & INTERNATIONAL SCENARIO
Right to know has a long history of prolonged debates, deliberates,
discussions, struggles and movements at both national and international
levels.
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
United Nations General Assembly in its 1st session in 1946 adopted
Resolution 59(1), which states: Freedom of information is a fundamental
human right and the touchstone of all the freedom to which the UN is
consecrated. (dedicated)
Article 19 of UDHR- Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Art. 19(2) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

ICCPR- Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this
right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in
print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.
MOVEMENT for RTI ACT
It is originated from the grassroot levels.
A mass-based organization called the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan
(MKSS) took an initiative to lead the people in a very backward region of
Rajasthan (Bhim Tehsil) to avert their right to info by asking copies of
Bills, Vouchers and names of person who have been shown in the
master rolls on the construction of the schools, dispensaries, small dams
and community centres as having been paid wages. Because of gross
misappropriation of funds with roofless school buildings, dispensaries
without walls, dams left incomplete, community centres having no doors
and windows, and poor quality of cement being used for construction.
After years of knocking at officials, MKSS succeeded in getting
photocopies of certain relevant documents which clearly shows the
misappropriation of funds and then the first ever Jan Sunani was took
place.
“Lok Satta”, an NGO in A.P. has undertaken mass awareness campaign
across the state and through ‘post card campaign’ made representation
to the PM of India demanding the enactment of a right to information law.
For the need to enact law on right to info, the GOI decided to set up a
‘Working Group’ (on the right to information and promotion of open and
transparent Govt) in January 1997 under the Chairmanship of Mr. H.D.
Soni, who submitted draft Bill on freedom of information in May 1997.
The Press Council, Press Institute of India conducted National
Campaign for people’s right to information and the forum for right to
information, unanimously submitted resolution to the GOI to amend
proposed Bill in Feb 2000.
Later on, the Govt. introduced freedom of information Bill, 2000 in the
Lok Sabha on 25th July 2003 and passed by Parliament as the Freedom
of Information Act,2002.
The United Progressive Alliances (UPA) Govt. at the Centre level, which
came into Power in 2004 set up National Advisory Council (NAC). It
suggested for important changes to be incorporated in the FOI Act,2000.
These suggestions were examined by the UPA Govt. and decided to
make the FOI Act more progressive, participatory & meaningful.
Later, UPA Govt. repealed the FOI Act and enacted a new legislation,
“Right to Information Act, 2005”, to provide an effective framework for
effectuating the RTI recognised under Art. 19(1)(a) of the COI.
Even before the FOI act passed by the Parliament, several States in
India had enacted their own legislation. Tamil Nadu was the first state to
introduce RTI Act in April 1966.
Goa (1997), Karnataka (2000), Delhi (2001), Assam (2002), Madhya
Pradesh (2003) and Jammu & Kashmir (2004)

LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENTS OF INDIA

RTI: -
In India, RTI is implicit in COI & explicitly provided in the Legislations
enacted by the Parliament & State Legislatures. The Govt has
enacted RTI Act in 2005- w.e.f. October 12, 2005 which further
derives its Constitutional validity from Art. 19 (1) (a) & Art. 21 of COI.
U/A 19
Art. 19 (1) (a) of COI guarantees to all citizens freedom of speech
and expression. It may be pointed out that the ‘right to impart and
receive information’ is a specie of the right to freedom of speech &
expression.
Prof. Madhu Dandavate, the veteran Parliamentarian has said “It is
always better to be transparent and let people form their opinion. If
the right to expression is output, the right to information is input.
Without adequate & correct inputs, the output cannot be good”.
The State is not only under an obligation to respect the Fundamental
Rights of the Citizens, but it is equally under an obligation to ensure
conditions under which these rights can be meaningfully and
effectively be enjoyed by one and all.
The pre-requisite for enjoying the right u/Art. 19(1)(a) is knowledge
and information. Thus, right to freedom of speech and expression in
Art. 19 (1) (a) carries with it the Right to propagate and circulate one’s
view and opinions subject to reasonable restrictions as stated in Art.
19(2) i.e., Sovereignty & Integrity of India, the Security of the State,
Friendly relationship with foreign States, Public Order, Decency,
Morality, Contempt of Court, Incitement of Offence & Defamation.

RTI U/A 21
 RTI has also been linked from art. 21 of COI i.e., Right to life and
personal liberty. This has been decided in the case of Reliance
Petrochemicals limited Vs. Proprietors, Indian Express Newspapers
Bombay (P) Ltd., (1988) 4 SCC 592; AIR 1989 SC 190. The SC read
into art 21 the right to know. The supreme court held that right to
know is a necessary ingredient of participatory democracy. Due to
open dealings of the nation with international communities for
cooperation in various spheres and they are moving towards global
perspective in various fields including Human Rights, the expression
“liberty “must receive an expanded meaning.
Liberty can’t be limited to mere absence of bodily restrain, it is wide
enough to expand to full range of rights including right to hold a
particular opinion & right to sustain and nurture that opinion. For
sustaining and nurturing that opinion it becomes necessary to receive
information. Art 21 confers on all persons a right to know which
include a right to receive information.
RTI ACT, 2005
The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the
citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of
the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work
for the people in real sense. It goes with saying that an informed
citizen is better equipped to keep necessary vigil on the instruments
of governance and make the government more accountable to the
governed. The Act is a big step towards making the citizens informed
about the activities of the Government.
U/s 2(f) "information" means any material in any form, including records,
documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases,
circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models,
data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any
private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any
other law for the time being in force
U/sec. 2(j) of the Act "right to information" means the right to
information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the
control of any public authority and includes the right to--
(i) inspection of work, documents, records;
(ii) taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records,
(iii) taking certified samples of material;
(iv) obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video
cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printouts where
such information is stored in a computer or in any other device;
Sec. 3 of RTI Act provides that subject to the provisions of the Act, all
citizens shall have the Right to Information.
o U/s 4- The Act provides that the Public authority shall publish the
information within 120 days from the enactment of RTI Act.
- The information regarding the organisation, its functions,
powers etc.
o u/s 5- Designation of PIO in every public authority, to receive
application for requesting information.
o Central Information Commission and State Information
Commission as the appellate authority u/s 12, 13 & 15,17
respectively. Their powers provided u/s 18 of the RTI act.

The restrictions on RTI are provided

o u/s 8- certain categories of info. Has been exempted from
disclosure [derived from art.19(2)];
o u/s 9- rejection by PIO (public information officer) if the requested
info may lead to any copyright infringement.
o u/s 24- certain organisations have been excluded from applying
the RTI act, like- IB, R&AW, CRPF etc.
Although the laws are prevailing for RTI still people could not gather the
required info properly. Here, therefore, the responsibility lies with the
media to make people aware of their rights & provide the information in
an organised manner.

ROLE OF MEDIA
It can make a real difference to the lives of poor & marginalised people
by:
- making them aware of their rights & entitlements
- aware about their political issues
- educating the public on social, economic & environmental
issues
- Drawing attention to institutional failures like fraud & corruptions
- Waste , inefficiency, nepotism, abuse of powers & the like.
- Creating pressure for improved govt. performance,
accountability and quality in service delivery
Traditional system of info access in India have made journalist depends
on sources they must cultivate. The RTI regime can enable credible,
evidence-based and factual reporting on key issues of public interest.
It enable the media to expose mal-administration, corruption & to
propagate stories & instances relating to accountability, transparency,
effective administration & good governance.
Under RTI Act, the Journalists and reporters can
i) Demand from the govt, information pertaining to any of its dept.
ii) Photocopies of Govt. contracts, payment estimates,
measurements of enquired works etc.
iii) Inspect govt. documents, books (books of accounts), registers,
records
iv) Demand status of request (of the information), or complaints,
details of time delay, action taken on information commission’s
decisions etc.