Bolgatanga, Sep 28, GNA - The Coalition on the Right to Information Bill is working in partnership with the Information Service Department (ISD= ) and other Regional focal persons to carry out extensive education on the Bill. It is meant to solicit more input from institutions and the public before the bill is passed on October 25. As part of the educational programme the Coalition has distributed a draft of the bill, presently before Parliament, to the ISD. ISD is to explain its content to institutions such as the traditional councils, the Trade Union Congress, Civil Society Organizations the Ghana Bar Association and the Ghana Journalists Association to enable them make a= n input into the bill. In addition the Coalition also distributed educational materials in the form of leaflets and posters to aid the ISD to undertake the activity. Speaking with the Upper East Regional Directorate of the ISD on Wednesday, the Project Coordinator, the Right to Information Bill, Mr Francis Ameyibor, explained that the exercise was very important because th= e five regional consultations organised by Parliament on the bill to gather their input was not enough because some important institutions did not make their input. "The right to information is a fundamental human right as guaranteed in the Country's Constitution of Article 21(1) (f) which provides that all persons have the right to information subject to such qualification and law= s as necessary in a democratic society".

Mr Ameyibor said the right to information was not only meant to facilitate the work of only journalists but everybody, stressing that it wa= s the responsibility of any public official to tell the general public or his constituency what he is doing. He appealed to institutions that had not made input into the bill to do so through memoranda to make the country pass a good bill to serve the interest of the people. Mr Nelson Mba, Regional Information Officer, assured the Coalition that the ISD would incorporate the education on the Right to Information Bill in its education programmes in all the nine districts in the Region but asked for support.