The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ Official Secrets Act would have to be done away with in order for the much talked about Freedom of Information Act to come about, a communications boss said yesterday.

Speaking on a panel at the Freedom of Information Forum hosted by the Bahamas Association of Journalists in conjunction with the College of the Bahamas’ Media Journalism Department, Wendal Jones, of Jones Communications Network, said: “We have enforced the Official Secrets Act, which has not been repealed, and it is very difficult to see how this new Freedom of Information Act will come about if we do not have the secrets act repealed.

“Let me remind you, General Orders are an intricate part of the public service of governance in the Bahamas.And General Orders are derived from the Official Secrets Act. As many people would know, if you are a public servant here in the Bahamas, you have to sign a document that you will not divulge the secrets of the government or information to the public.

“And what we have seen over many years in the Bahamas, is that successive administrations have based the operations of the government on secrecy. If we were to get a Freedom of Information Act as I said before, I believe that we would have to repeal the Official Secrets Act.”


Last August, Prime Minister Perry Christie promised that the FOIA would be enforced and an Information Commission would be set up within this current term of office, though he did not specify when the FOIA would be enforced.
The FOIA Act was first introduced in Parliament in October 2011 and a revised version was passed in the Senate in February 2012 with further, restricted, access to public information.
Speaking at the forum held in the Harry C Moore Library and broadcast live on radio, Mr Jones noted the benefits of what the FOIA Act would mean for the Bahamas.
“Just let me say that I do believe that the Freedom of Information Act, once that is enacted, can have a profound effect on our society. It will change the way the public interact with the government of the Bahamas. It will encourage trust, from the citizenry, in the government. It will move our governance forward in a very positive way. And the public I believe would have a greater level of confidence in the government,” he said.
However, he expressed his doubt that the act would be enacted by the government.
Mr Jones said journalists could change that if they pushed for the repeal of the OSA.