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Communicatio South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research ISSN: 0250-0167 (Print) 1753-5379 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcsa20 Access to information law and the stalled ‘winds of change’ in zambia Sam Phiri To cite this article: Sam Phiri (2016) Access to information law and the stalled ‘winds of change’ in zambia, Communicatio, 42:1, 35-55 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02500167.2016.1152991 Published online: 17 Mar 2016. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rcsa20 Download by: [Sam Phiri] Date: 17 March 2016, At: 14:38 ACCESS TO INFORMATION LAW AND THE STALLED ‘WINDS OF CHANGE’ IN ZAMBIA Sam Phiri Department of Mass Communication University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia [email protected] ABSTRACT Zambia, like a few other African countries, has been grappling with the adoption of the Access to Information (ATI) law over the past 25 years. This article argues that the Zambian approach towards easing access to public information has been faulty, because it is narrowly focused and this has resulted in the process stalling. The argument is made here, that the ATI law is part of a global social movement towards greater transparency. Furthermore, the article focuses on Zambia’s approach to the law (whose push is dominated by executive control) Downloaded by [Sam Phiri] at 14:38 17 March 2016 and how that approach has impacted on good governance. The article also discusses how some countries have dealt with similar laws, before concluding that unless Zambia’s move towards this law is broadened, whatever may be enacted in the future could be faulty. Keywords: access; Africa; civil society; communication; democracy; globalisation; information; media; movement; Zambia university of south africa Communicatio DOI: 10.1080/02500167.2016.1152991 Volume 42 | Number 1 | 2016 Print ISSN 0250-0167 | Online 1753-5379 pp. 35–55 © Unisa Press 35 Sam Phiri Access to Information law and the stalled ‘winds of change’ in Zambia INTRODUCTION In the late 1980s, when the wheels of worldwide history had turned and politically peaked, the Zambian government, like many others at that time, did not fully comprehend the forces at play. Its response was tempered with the hope that governance institutions could preserve the then one-party political dominance by consciously redirecting the global socio-political forces at play. Consequently, in responding to the rapid changes evidenced by the events taking place in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Zambia designed a narrowed and tapered response strategy that was mainly managed by the research wing of the then ruling United National Independence Party (UNIP). The overall aim then as (perhaps) now, was the preservation of, or limited modifications to, the status quo. This article argues that the mistakes of 25 years ago can, realistically, be visited upon Zambia in its current search for greater access to the information held by government and other public utilities. This kind of information is required by the people in order to properly exercise and defend their rights, while holding those with political and economic power to account. The danger is that the mistakes of a generation ago will be repeated if current approaches to the Access to Information law (ATI) persist – the law’s narrow focus may be the reason why any related progress has stalled. BACKGROUND TO THE ZAMBIAN APPROACH In Zambia, ATI is viewed as the remit and ultimate concern of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services (MIBS). For instance, over the past 16 or so years, this has been the primary government agency tasked with leading the country’s movement towards the ATI law. Conversely, though, at the policy level Zambia has seemingly built expansive consensus about the need for this law. Roughly all shades of politicians ostensibly agree that the law is a prerequisite to a democratic Downloaded by [Sam Phiri] at 14:38 17 March 2016 dispensation. Questions arise, however, when discussing its structures, function, degree, scope, ease, convenience, efficacy and utility. These difficulties may be caused by, or be the result of, intense debates which over the years have gently (and sometimes stridently) encircled this law, both locally and internationally. Ultimately, in Zambia the impellent force within government for the ATI law has rightly (or wrongly) been located in the MIBS. Thus Zambians have come to view the ATI as mainly the concern of the information and communication industries and branches of society. That is why even within parliament, debates on ATI occur within the Parliamentary Committee on Information and Broadcasting Services. Furthermore, this ‘location’ is dramatised by the fact that the fight for greater access to public information in Zambia has been led by media advocacy groups such as the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and its associates, the Zambia 36 Sam Phiri Access to Information law and the stalled ‘winds of change’ in Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ) and the Press Association of Zambia (PAZA). So far, no conceivable broad-based civil society movement has evolved to fight for this law. That lack is, perhaps, indicative of the dominant paradigm sites upon which Zambia’s moves towards the ATI are built. Our exploration will illustrate that this should not be the case. CONTEXTUAL FOUNDATIONS The intended ATI law should not be taken out of context and isolated as a Zambian event – it is part of a global historical movement that is situated within the political dimension of the universalisation of democratic systems. As is well known, this universalisation does not respect territorial borders, political parties, individuals or political systems. In that context, and for our purposes, this universalisation of the democratic ideal, and all that goes with it, is a form of globalisation which is not limited to highly aggressive economic forces alone, but should be viewed as a process leading to the internationalisation/Westernisation – or, indeed, the universalisation – of the basic principles underpinning the ideology of liberalism. All these are patently ‘undemocratic’ global initiatives, although within them they facetiously include the people’s right to access public information, as well as some private information which is in the interest of citizens. The universalisation of such principles as those embedded in the ATI laws, is what Robertson (1992, 8) refers to as intensified forms of ‘global consciousness’, the kind of awareness which, according to Walters (2001, 5) twirls into recession the earlier geographical, economic, social and cultural formations. As a result, more and more people are aware that such structural configurations and restraints are receding on a daily basis, and thus the people have begun to respond accordingly. As Giddens (1990, 64) argues, the process leads to the ‘intensification of worldwide social relations’ or global connections. Maun (2013, 11) declares that such ties are not only economic or military, but also political and ideological. This is a world that, Downloaded by [Sam Phiri] at 14:38 17 March 2016 according to Mulgan (1998, 3), is tightly knit through ‘multiple connections’, the like of which have never been seen in world history. As Johari (2012, 731–750) reminds us, these powerful and highly complex mixes of overlapping and concurrent tendencies also exhibit socio-cultural and political dimensions with ‘omnibus’ characteristics. It may be because of the varied character of globalisation that researchers such as the South American, Vilas (2002, 70), approach the process from a historical perspective and view it as economic imperialism, while Nigerian scholar Ezema (2010, 11) perceives it as a form of cultural imperialism. Vilas (2002, 75–76) argues that even postgraduate work in some United States (US) universities plays the role of driving the strategies, values and policies that facilitate the diffusion of American transnational capital and culture. The cultural 37 Sam Phiri Access to Information law and the stalled ‘winds of change’ in Zambia aspect is further visible in media images – particularly on television and the Internet – where the push by American intellectuals is firmly ‘accompanied and consolidated by the promotion of the values of US society to broad sectors of the population in societies lacking the structural prerequisites to achieve those standards’ (ibid.). Irrespective of the brands attached to this movement, however, the reality is that globalisation has developed and comes with what Kant (1991, 108) refers to as ‘cosmopolitan’ rights, and international political and legal codes which are slowly but surely being universalised for all societies and all humanity. The ATI law therefore lies on the same flat surface as gender equity, social justice, anti-terrorism, anti-racism and environmental protection. It is part of the global swing towards internationally standardised systems of human rights. Giddens (1990, 64) in particular argues that modernity implicitly intensifies the global exertion towards connecting disparate and distant communities and localities, so that events which happen thousands of kilometres away shape local actions, proceedings, behaviours and deeds. This is what Robertson (1995) refers to as ‘glocalisation’, whereby local and global situations are commingling in the fabrication of new mores,