Ruhi Naz

Nine years ago this month, the RTI Act 2009 of Bangladesh was born. It came at a time when the entire nation was filled with a deep sense of relief and hope for change and reforms.

In the days before May 25, email users all over the world were bombarded with a barrage of electronic messages updating them on something called the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Observers claim that the number of messages dispatched by businesses throughout the world on the occasion might have surpassed those sent during Christmas or New Year. On that day, Europe became subject to the GDPR, a law aimed primarily at bringing outdated personal data laws across EU up to speed with the fast-moving digital era. GDPR has an impact far beyond Europe.

Political tension mount in most countries during election year. In Bangladesh, tension has already gripped the people and is likely to intensify before the general elections scheduled for December 2018.

At his investiture last month, the new police chief of Bangladesh committed to making each police station truly a centre for welfare of the people.

The disclosure of information on people's race or ethnicity during World War II caused one of the worst tragedies known to mankind. It led to secret denunciations and seizures, sending millions of friends and neighbours to labour and concentration camps and eventually to gas chambers.

In late 1840s, London was hit by a vicious cholera epidemic. Health officials struggled to curb the spread until Dr John Snow painstakingly collected data on the location and history of each case and traced the source to specific water supplies in the city.

The use of RTI to seek redress for personal grievances is equally popular. RTI has been used by students appearing in various public service examinations to find out if they were fairly treated by the examiners. Whether the desired information is received or not, the applications alone help alert the authorities that their performance is being watched by citizens.

Later this month, the world will mark the International Day for Universal Access to Information, hitherto known as International Right to Know Day.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's removal from office was the subject of much attention in Bangladesh and elsewhere. But buried within the story about political turmoil and the future of civilian rule in Pakistan was a story about leaked information and disclosure of assets.

"The freedom of a nation cannot be upheld by laws alone, but also by the light of the nation and knowledge of their use." These words by Anders Chydenius, a Swedish enlightenment thinker and politician of the eighteenth century, had set the ball rolling for the adoption of world's first freedom of information law in Sweden and Finland in 1766. Since then around 115 countries/territories have enacted similar transparency laws.

There is a new breed of fans in South Asia: fans of the Right to Information (RTI) laws in our region. These are passionate, almost fanatical, RTI activists.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of the light.”

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 are reported to be receiving serious attention from the government and civil society in Bangladesh.

Afrequently asked question about RTI law relates to the meaning of the term “authority”. As the Act empowers citizens to query public authorities on matters that concern or aggrieve them, there is an obvious need to understand the concept of authority under the Act.