Dear Ms Seblin,
I watched the video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aotkkVOudoQ
about a Freedom of Information Act. Mr Ashok Radhakissoon commented
that "ca me fait peur" when he heard that only government bodies are
working on the legislation as "le fontionnaire est friand de mettre
des prohibitions, des exceptions, 'de ban'". I agree with Mr
Radhakissoon that it is a matter of access to information instead of
freedom of information. I doubt that the legislation will suit the
needs of the average person in Mauritius if the views of the public
are not taken into account in drafting the legislation.
Nowadays, the police collects data on road accidents using Police
Form 178. The details recorded are used to identify black spot
areas. If that data could be made available as Open Government Data,
it could be used to alert drivers to exercise more caution.
As another example, I sent a reminder to the Manager, Communications
and Consumer Affairs, Information and Communication Technologies
Authority about a request for information about the "National
Internet Filtering System" issue (
http://lists.elandnews.com/archive/mauritius/internet-users/2015/09/3625.html
). It looks like that the request has been ignored as I did not
receive any reply. It is difficult to get access to information held
by government bodies.
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Fri Oct 02 2015 - 17:31:41 PST