‘Each country needs its own model of freedom of information’ |19 December 2015

“Each country needs its own model of Freedom of Information Act and that the act needs to be customised taking into account the special needs of that country.”

This is the view of Corinna Zarek, an expert on freedom of information from the United States of America.

Ms Zarek was heading a round table discussion on ‘freedom of information’ early this week at the Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (Ceps) conference room at Orion Mall where journalists, members of civil societies and the media commission and other relevant stakeholders were updated on the United States mechanism on accessing public information and laws and regulations regarding freedom of information.

Ms Zarek works with the United States government as a senior advisor for Open Government at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She works with federal executive branch agencies to develop and implement open government initiatives, and coordinates outreach with non-government stakeholders.

Informally from time to time her colleagues around the world, from embassies for example, ask her to come and hence her visit here in Seychelles to discuss the subject.

Before the meeting at Ceps, Ms Zarek had already met colleagues of the Seychelles Media Commission who are working on a draft legislation of the freedom of information for Seychelles. But she stressed it needs the input of each and every Seychellois to give it more weight.

She also added there are various models and structures for such a document but a country needs to adopt the one it considers right for it.

“Every single model is just a model. It needs to be customised taking into account the special needs of Seychelles and the way that government should operate here regarding this issue,” said Ms Zarek.

But she also remarked that government does not have all the answers and they know that very much in the United States and therefore needs input from civil societies and stakeholders.

Making information available is also about having the necessary technologies and the pieces in place that will work for a country.

She remarked the public has a right to access information but they must also know that some information are state secrets, of national security or of personal privacy so they cannot be made public.
 
She added some laws are very clear regarding access to information and suggested that any law that is formulated, should right up front declares what is accessible or not.

Topics raised by the audience were, for example, that Seychelles is slowly and surely getting there regarding freedom of information as our democracy develops; issues on how does a country determine personal privacy while there were also suggestions for more investigative journalism which is directly linked to access to information.

Ms Zarek is also an adjunct professor of Journalism in the US. She teaches Communication Law for the American University in Washington DC. She is an attorney specialising in First Amendment and freedom of information law and joined the adjunct faculty in 2007.  

Previously, Ms Zarek was the staff attorney for the federal Office of Government Information Services, which serves as the Freedom of Information Act Ombudsman, assisting requesters and agencies in resolving disputes and reviewing agencies’ FOIA compliance.

Ms Zarek sits on the board of directors for the D.C. Open Government Coalition and Iowa Watch, a non-profit investigative reporting organisation.