THE RIGHT OF INFORMATION ACT; A TOOL FOR DEMOCRACY

1.0. INTRODUCTION

The Republic of Ghana right from its independence has seen a number of civilian and military
governments which introduces or suspends the exiting constitution as it deems fits. To the
Civilian government, the Constitution is seen as mastery to all rights and freedoms whereas the
military government’s decrees may seem to curtail some fundamental rights and freedoms.

In the Fourth Republic with the Constitution of Ghana, 1992 as supreme, emphasis is placed on
the rights and freedoms of the citizens. To be more specific, the 1992 constitution allows for the
Right to information in Article 21(1)(f) as well as the freedom of Speech and Expression in
Article 21(1)(a). These important clauses have gone a long way to determine the potency of
Democracy in many forms especially in terms of the Respects for Basic human rights and the
freedom of the press.

The access to information now has become a vital determinant of a country’s democracy as it
seeks to ensure accountability and transparency in the public sector. The intent of the Right to
Information Act 2019 (Act 989) was to make information freely available to the public and allow
access to public information (Avle & Adunbi, 2015).

In view of this, this paper seeks to establish the relationship between the Right to Information
Act 2009 and Democracy bringing to light areas of freedom of speech and expression and
national security.

2.0. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Studies done have not examined the accessibility of the said information and have not taken a
critical look as to how an individual or official gets access to public records considering other
factors like time and bureaucracy. Furthermore, the concept of the Right to Information Act 2019
may have been glorified and may be appreciated by the few. Minimum effort has been put into
how the public understand the act and the steps involved in retrieving public data. Finally, on the
issue of national defense, little work has been done on where to draw the line on the media’s role
and right to information and its impact on national security.
3.0. RESEARCH QUESTION
a) How easily are public records accessible to the general public?
b) What is the awareness rate of the public on the RTI Act?
c) How much is too much information for the Media and limitations to accessing public
information?

4.0. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

5.0. THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

6.0. LITERATURE REVIEW

7.0. METHODOLOGY

8.0. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS