ATI bill to be tabled in June

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Malawi Parliament
parliament
Parliamentarians to debate on the ATI bill from June.

The Access to Information (ATI) bill will not be tabled in the current sitting of Parliament but will be discussed in the next sitting of the national assembly, according to the Media Committee of Parliament.

Chairperson of the committee, Sam Kawale said the bill need to be scrutinized further.

“There is need to scrutinize the bill further so that it does not have any bad effect on Malawians,” said Kawale.

He added that there is great importance in doing so as it will be for the betterment of Malawians.

Kawale further said that if the bill is not scrutinized well, the legislators will be at fault. He said the bill is expected to be tabled in the next sitting of parliament in June this year.

Recently, the media in the country urged Members of Parliament to reject the current version of the ATI bill if tabled in the house as it did not raise other issues.

The media practitioners worried that the changes government made to the bill will promote secrecy which defeats the principles of the proposed law.

The media also called on government to reconsider its position on the amendments before tabling the bill in Parliament.