The 1st National Convention on the Right to Information (RTI) held in Kathmandu from 28 to 29 March 2011, through its Kathmandu Declaration, has urged the government and its bureaucracy, political forces, civil society institutions, media sector and citizens to be proactive in practicing the RTI Act 2007.
The action-oriented Kathmandu Declaration has expressed its commitment to reinvigorating the RTI Act, which so far remains scantily practiced. Apart from recommending certain measures, it has decided to form a monitoring committee to see if or how the RTI is being used.
The 150 participants of the Convention represented not only the media sector but also bureaucracy, NGOs, INGOs, political parties and RTI champions from all the eight SAARC member countries.
The program is the first of its kind in Nepal.
President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav had inaugurated the Convention on Monday while the Constituent Assembly Chairperson Subhas Chandra Nembang was invited as the Chief Guest to conclude it on Tuesday.
Organized by the Freedom Forum and funded by the World Bank, the Convention extensively discussed the problems and possible measures in practicing the RTI Act. Most of the participants had stressed on the proactive role of the mass media in implementing the RTI Act while some of them also emphasized on the transparency of investments in the mass media for gaining moral ground to apply the RTI for accessing information from other sources.
A significantly raised issue in the discussions was a fear-and-threat factor barring journalists from the practice of investigative journalism. A veteran journalist commented, “Media is safe, journalists are not.”