INFORMATION Minister Senator Sandrea Falconer says a Cabinet submission for proposed changes to the Access to Information Act is to be made next year.

She gave the indication at a Jamaica House press briefing yesterday.

The Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) has been clamouring for the changes to the Act to finally come before Parliament, but some four years after the Joint Select Committee (JSC) reviewed the legislation and made recommendations a Bill has yet to be tabled.

In May of this year, the PAJ issued a release calling on the Government to follow through on its promise to implement the long-overdue proposed amendments.

“The committee made a number of important recommendations, including that the ATI Unit should become a statutory body, that the law should be amended to provide for a Code of Practice of Functions and Obligations to address the concern about how access officers are discharging their functions, and that a public interest test be included in the Act. This would allow a balancing exercise to take place, and allow the disclosure of information even in some categories exempt from disclosure, if the public interest in disclosing the information was determined to be greater than the interest in withholding the information,” PAJ President Dionne Jackson Miller wrote.

She noted that the JSC has also recommended that the Official Secrets Act be repealed and replaced with appropriate legislation, stressing that practitioners are still concerned that the Official Secrets Act is a source of intimidation for public servants.

“It is important to modernise the legislation to negate the culture of fear and secrecy traditionally associated with the Official Secrets Act, and to help send the message that the country is now in a new era of access rather than hiding information from the public,” Jackson Miller stated.

Jackson Miller said that although the organisation had taken note of the Government’s promise that a Cabinet submission would be made and the changes brought to Parliament this year, “we think that it’s important to add our voice to those calling for the amendments, to ensure the Government is aware that there is an interested and active body of civil society monitoring the progress of this legislation.”

— Alphea Saunders