The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has asked the Ministry of Information to pend the gazetting of Access to Information regulations for one more month.
Last Sunday, the Public Relations Society of Malawi (PRSM) called on the government to hold on to the gazetting of the regulations and pave way for stakeholder consultations.
MHRC says PRSM raised valid points that need to be listened to.
MHRC is legally mandated to coordinate the implementation of the Access to Information Act.
According to PRSM, the draft regulations in the current form have serious gaps and impractical demands that will undermine the implementation of the ATI Act.
“The regulations are critical in the successful implementation of the ATI Act and any such rush to gazette them without ensuring that the requirements therein are realistic and practical would result into public institutions struggling to comply with the law, thereby denying Malawians access to information which they need for the exercise of their rights,” said Lewis Msasa, PRSM President.
