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2nd in WDC’s 5-Part Series on Forwarding Women’s Rights and Democracy

Women and Freedom of Information

Urge women to act to:

• Legislate a Freedom of Information Act that is based on democratic governance and the pursuit of women’s human rights.

• Incorporate awareness-raising programmes into school, polytechnic, college and university curricula.

• Have an effective monitoring system that guarantees public access to information for greater accountability and transparency.

• Abolish repressive laws or review and amend restrictive laws that infringe the right to information and freedom of speech.

• Develop a Media Code of Conduct that encourages more gender sensitivity in editorial policies. Provide gender training for all journalists. Promote more gender-sensitised women in decision-making positions.

• Ensure gender-disaggregated data in all sectors.

• Ensure democratic and gender sensitive governance structures and practices to allow for citizens’ participation in public life, especially women.

• Ratify and monitor international human rights treaties.

Knowledge is power. Having access to information is the key to knowledge. Without freedom of information, people have very little say about the things that count in their lives. Before they know it, they find themselves having to pay 30 cent more for petrol, or in toll charges, which have been hiked without consulting them. It is imperative for people to know what is going on around them.

Without a free flow of information, it is difficult to hold governments and corporations accountable for their actions. As a result, these institutions are able to commit offences with impunity. Without relevant information, people, including women, are unable to make well-informed choices for themselves.

Key Concerns
1. General barriers to freedom of information
• The use of repressive laws like the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984. Recently, this law was used on two China Press senior editors, who were forced to resign for allegedly reporting wrongly that the woman in the nude ear-squat video was a Chinese national.
• The lack of transparency and accountability as to how local governments spend their funds (The Edge Malaysia “Local Power” 22 Dec 2003). The public has no access to information on the RM13 billion annual budgets handled by local governments, and no say in how it is spent.
• The inadequate information on draft laws, which are often passed through Parliament hastily. This denies the public the opportunity to discuss any proposed Bills and give their input, curtailing the rights of Malaysia’s citizens to participatory democracy.
• Media is subject to repressive laws, state control over editorial policies, and is often subject to censorship, which makes it difficult for the media to successfully disseminate information to the public. In extreme cases, the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 can be used to close down a newspaper altogether.
• The lack of academic freedom and repressive environment within the public universities through Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 and Akujanji are barriers to the dissemination and access of relevant information.

2. Additional barriers to women’s access to information
• Even though credit and other support facilities are available, many women who wish to set up their own businesses are not informed of their availability or how to access these forms of help.
• Lack of education and poverty amongst rural women – who comprise 4 million persons – makes it more difficult for them to benefit from Government policies, plans, programmes
and facilities. (Ministry of Women and Family Development, 2003).
• Women form 52% of eligible voters, but the majority of them do not know much about the election candidates they are voting for. Such information is not readily available in the heavily controlled media nor do these women have the same opportunities as men, to obtain this information through other sources e.g. political rallies (Malaysian NGO CEDAW Shadow Report Group, 2004).
• The low representation of women in decision-making structures contributes towards the poor channelling of information on laws, policies, plans and programmes to other women.
• The absence of basic infrastructure, high costs of deploying Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), unfamiliarity with ICTs, the dominance of English over the Internet and its content, low levels of literacy, and lack of opportunities for training in computer skills further compound women’s difficulties in accessing information.
• Women face legal discrimination and restrictions that inhibit their action and are ill-informed on their legal rights.
• Lack of gender-disaggregated data hinders women politicians from advocating gender budgeting, or initiating programmes that can best help women.
• Mass media often objectifies women and portrays them in traditional roles.

What you can do:
• Form groups to discuss your concerns, or join Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in their campaigns.
• Meet or write to your local Member of Parliament (MP) and State Assembly representative.
• Write to the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Information and the Prime Minister’s Department.