The documentary film titled "Bangabandhu and Dhaka University," produced and directed by Professor A. J. M Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan, Ph.D., received the National Film Award 2022 as the best documentary. On Tuesday, October 31, 2023, the Ministry of Information unveiled...
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RTIA and People’s Right to Know
Can or will the Right to Information Act (RTIA) ensure people’s right to know? Answer to this question requires an analysis of the law and the context of its creation.
The military-backed non-party caretaker government of Fakhruddin Ahmed promulgated this act in 2008 as an ordinance. The incumbent Awami League (AL) led government got it approved by the parliament. It has been a result of attempts made by various groups during the last two and a half decades.
First, journalists demanded a law, which would ensure press freedom in 1983 when military rule suppressed all kinds of expressions against the regime and received support from the political parties (Ronjona and Alok, 2010). Under pressure, the military regime of HM Ershad created a press commission with Ataur Rahman Khan as the chair and several newspaper editors as members to find out how freedom of the press could be ensured. This commission in its report to the president recommended that the government create an act called the Freedom of Information Act. But the Ershad regime never implemented this recommendation.
Published on Volume 5 Issue 08 | August 2011
