LILONGWE, Sunday, September 27, 2020 – The Public Relations Society of Malawi (PRSM) hereby calls on the Malawi Government, through the Ministry of Information, to put on hold the gazetting and operationalization of Access to Information (ATI) Act regulations until adequate consultations are done with prospective implementation agencies and other stakeholders.

While PRSM commends the new administration for its commitment and sense of urgency to operationalize the long-awaited ATI Act, it has noted with concern and serious reservations that the regulations have been drafted without stakeholder consultations. This is a serious omission in a democratic dispensation.
The draft regulations in the current form have serious gaps and impractical demands that will certainly undermine the implementation of the ATI Act.

The regulations are critical in the successful implementation of the ATI Act and any 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.

PRSM believes that a slight delay in the gazetting of the regulations to allow reasonable consultations with stakeholders, including heads of implementation agencies and their communications personnel as well as relevant professional bodies, is important and necessary for the successful operationalization of the ATI Act.

LEWIS MSASA
PRESIDENT