Following up on Liberia's FOI law

Colleagues! Last February 7-9, 2010, we attended the African Regional Conference on the Rights of Access to Information in Accra, Ghana, hosted by the Carter Center. I was member of the Liberian delegation, and a member of the Liberian Parliament who chairs the House Standing Committee on Information, Broadcast Culture and Tourism. At the meeting if you can recalled while speaking I challenged the Ghanain Minister of Justice and said that the Liberian parliament was going to be the first to passed the Freedom of Information Bill that was in my committee room before the Ghanains and we all laughed at my challenge. I am pleased to tell you the bill has been passed and signed into law by our President Madame Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

My concern now, is to see the working of the law and its benefits to the Liberian people. When I was a practicing Journalist, after winning the CNN African Journalist of the Year award for Radio; my dream was to see an FOI enacted and now that the law has been enacted I pray that others Countries can enact the FOI law and it lives up to its intended purpose. I hope that the Carter Center can do a followup to see if the law is really working for the people. I would also like to hear from you and the progress you have made in your various countries on the FOI.

I wish you all a happy and properous 2011.

Sincerely Yours,
Hon. Vinicius S. Hodges
Member of the House of Representatives
Electoral Disticts Two
Grand Bassa County