PEOPLE could soon have the right to obtain government information without restriction under a new bill approved by parliament yesterday.
However, the bill, based on a parliamentary proposal, would not include CPR data and other personal records after MPs agreed with government officials attending the session that this would amount to an invasion of privacy.
It was also revealed that the government plans to draft a new privacy protection law and MPs were urged to ensure that both bills did not contradict each other.
Under the bill approved yesterday, highly classified, security and military-related information would be kept secret for a certain period before people would be allowed to access them.
The timeframe would be decided by the bill's by-laws whenever ratified by His Majesty King Hamad.
People will be obliged to pay certain fees for accessing some information as well as for photocopying or other costs for getting their hands on the information.
Any government body that refuses to release information within 15 days would face prosecution and if convicted could be jailed for a year or fined BD600.
A new information council, chaired by the Information Minister, will be formed to organise its work and investigate grievances as well as classify information and file it.
Parliament second vice-chairman Dr Salah Abdulrahman, who is behind the original proposal along with his bloc Al Menbar, said that the new bill would help improve democracy in the country.
"Let's admit it, people are facing difficulty obtaining information and this law would certainly help a lot in accessing it," he said.
"Even with limitations, after government opinion has been taken into consideration, it is a step in the right direction.
"For our democratic experience to develop, more and more information should be open to the public and that's what we have done here with this law."
Culture and Information Ministry Assistant Under-Secretary for Publications Dr Abdulla Yateem also backed the law.
Al Wefaq bloc president MP Shaikh Ali Salman questioned Bahrain's claims to democracy but said the law was a step in the right direction.
"I agree that in some cases privacy has to be timed, but I believe that years from now information should be open to all, as in other developed countries," he said.
MP Dr Jassim Hussain said that getting information was something granted to everyone in the Constitution, but this is not reflected in reality.
"For two years, we thought the population of Bahrain was 750,000 until discovering it was more than one million and I am certain that the numbers have gone higher, but until today the concerned ministry or government body is not giving us that information.
"The Financial Audit Bureau report for last year is not accessible to the public, despite it dealing with the public's money and no one knows the reasons behind the bureau not having it published on their website, despite the fact it is public information," he said.
"We as MPs have only got our hands on it (the proof) two weeks after someone leaked it to the Press, which shows how information flows here in this country - in an unorganised manner."
alaali@gdn.com.bh
