Access to information remains weak, monitoring report

Access to information remains unsatisfactory, - this is one of the highlights of a new quarterly monitoring report released today, January 15, by the group of experts established by Acces-info Center as part of the Strengthening Civil Society Monitoring Capacity in Moldova (SCSMCM) Program. According to the report, covering the fourth quarter of 2008, the Government has taken a series of measures to improve communication with the public, and Parliament passed the Law on transparency in decision-making. However, the reporting period was marked by a number of cases where access to information was denied. The level of access to official information is rated at 2.4 points, on a scale from 0 to 5, where 0 represent weakest performance and 5 best performance. This is a slight improvement on the third quarter (2.36), and on the second (2.12) and third (2.09) quarters. “Access to information is restricted by the absence of efficient management procedures that would facilitate active information and interactive dialogue between the public administration and the citizens. Another obstacle is the failure by a great number of bureaucrats to observe the legislative provisions, on the one hand, and the low levels of legal literacy in the society, on the other”, said Acces-info chairman Vasile Spinei. “The quality of a many official web-pages leaves a lot to be desired because of their numerous deficiencies related to the inadequacy of information of public interest, including transparency in public procurement deals, results of investigations, reserve fund allocations, etc.”, he added. In recent years over 300 cases concerning access to information have been examined in Moldovan courts, said lawyer Eugeniu Ribca, and this sets precedents which, to a certain extent, has a beneficial impact on functionaries, seekers of information, and of course on the judges, who had committed regrettable errors in the early years of the Moldovan judicial system. “Seeking justice in court every time a journalist's right to information is violated can complete the case law, contributing to a greater extent to the education of public functionaries who violate this legislation and ignore their duties as well as to raising the awareness on the public opinion by upgrading legal literacy levels”. The report highlights the need to institute a culture of information, which would stimulate the society to be permanently interested in how public money is being spent, says Viorel Cibotaru, one of the report's authors and also the director of the Public Policy Institute. The experts are advocating for acknowledgment of the right to information as a key factor in fostering civic participation, good governance, effectiveness in public administration, transparency in preventing and combating corruption, general growth, and accomplishment of socioeconomic, civil and political rights. The group of experts consists of civil society and mass media representatives. The SCSMCM Program is administrated by the USAID and funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation.