The Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (CSAT) has challenged media practitioners in the country to leverage the Access to Information (ATI) Law to enhance transparency and accountability in parliamentary processes, ensuring vital information reaches citizens, especially in rural areas.
CSAT Citizen Engagement Manager Moffat Phiri made the remarks on Thursday in Lilongwe at the end of a one-day Parliamentary Support Program Media engagement sessions on Access to Information (ATI).
According to Phiri, media professionals play a dual role: as watchdogs ensuring parliamentary accountability and as conduits relaying crucial information from parliament to the general public.
“We have seen that the media is key in relaying key information from various institutions, especially the parliament, to the rural masses of Malawi, so that the general citizenry have to understand. So today was the session which we wanted the journalists, the media fraternity to get acquainted with the access to information law so that they see how they can address the gaps they face whenever they are covering parliamentary proceedings,” said Phiri.
Phiri further added that ATI is revolutionizing transparency in the country by requiring public institutions to proactively share key information while empowering citizens and journalists to request details without fear.
“The Access to Information Law is a transformative framework that operates on two main principles. First, it is about ensuring that public institutions proactively disclose key information to promote transparency. Second, it empowers citizens and journalists to request information directly from government institutions without fear or obstruction,“explained Phiri.
One of the participants, Robert Chandilira of Blantyre Synod Radio described the training as very transformative saying that through the training they have acquired basic skills that will be helping them to easily access information from public officers to serve Malawians.
“The training was very important because they have trained us on how we can access important information. There has been some times in the past where journalists have been failing to access information from officers. But after this training, we have been told on how we can access, how we can source officers to give us the necessary information that we want,” said Chandilira.
Supported by a grant from Democracy International’s USAID-funded Parliamentary Support Programme, CSAT is implementing the Parliamentary Support Program (PSP) to strengthen Malawi’s democratic governance.
The initiative focuses on enhancing the Parliament of Malawi’s ability to effectively carry out its legislative, oversight, and representative responsibilities.
