São Tomé and Príncipe still lacks access-to-information law
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Rstp
Illustrative image · Mikhail Nilov · Pexels · Licence PexelsMedia professionals and civil-society representatives in São Tomé and Príncipe deplore the failure of successive governments to adopt an access-to-information law, despite a draft presented in 2019. The text would notably facilitate access to public contracts, state budgets and institutions’ reports, according to Centre for Public Integrity executive director Deodato Capela and lawyer Nádia Bragança.
São Tomé and Príncipe has still not adopted a law governing access to public information, despite the presentation of a draft bill in October 2019. The executive director of the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), Deodato Capela, said that steps had then been taken with parliamentary groups and the President of the National Assembly.
The draft bill, drawn up under the Propalop project, was intended to facilitate access to administrative documents, particularly public contracts. Lawyer Nádia Bragança also cites the state’s general budgets and institutions’ activity reports among the public-interest information to which citizens should be able to gain access, subject to rights protected by law.
Media professionals say the absence of precise rules complicates journalism and the interpretation of a right nevertheless enshrined in the Constitution. The country does, however, have Article 74 of its Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Code, adopted by Decree-Law No. 25/2005, which regulate this right. RSTP reports that journalists and civil-society actors are calling for advocacy for the law’s adoption to continue.
