City’s gag order raises alarmThe Windhoek City Council will in future only release information on its resolutions, and not issues that are still under discussion. Council resolutions available ‘for a fee’ 0 In the wake of the universal access to information celebrations serious questions about transparency and freedom of information were raised with regard to a recent City of Windhoek information gag order.Without warning, members of the public and media were informed last week at the monthly city council meeting that the practice of supplying documents related to ongoing municipal matters would stop with immediate effect.
At a media briefing yesterday, which raised alarm bells for journalists as well as concerned members of the public, the council claimed the decision was based on existing laws that had not been implemented to date. Instead of a transparent process of making documents available during deliberations on City matters, access will remain confidential until the council has taken a final decision on the matter.
Following that, council resolutions will be made public. According to the council this move was based on provisions of the Local Authority Act, Section 14, that deal with notice of council meetings.
Last week’s council resolutions have not been made available yet, although assurances were given at the media briefing that they would be made available this week.
City spokesperson Joshua Amukugo yesterday said the issue was raised after the council became “a little bit uncomfortable” with the way the media reported on issues based on documents contained in the monthly council agenda.
Instead, the City wants the media to focus on final council decisions, which will be made public once the minutes are confirmed.
Amukugo also gave notice that a fee might be charged in future for information requests.
Once council minutes are confirmed and become council resolutions they become available to the public “on payment of a determined fee,” he said.
Moreover, the City plans to launch an online library where relevant council documents can be obtained, but was unable to confirm when this library would be available.
The City’s acting CEO, Filemon Hambunda, said not all documents would be made available. The City will withhold “sensitive” documents, as determined by municipal staff.
According to Hambunda, sensitive documents include payslips and identification documents. Hambunda could not confirm the exact process that would determine whether documents are sensitive or not and how the process would be monitored to ensure transparency.
Hambunda apologised for the City’s failure to warn the public and media of the decision, which he said was an “operational” decision that does not require input from the City Council.
He added that the previous practice of making all documents relating to ongoing matters available “has come a long way, but it does not necessarily mean it was correct.”
He denied that the decision was an attempt to “gag” the media, and claimed that past media reports on council matters, based on recommendations rather than council resolutions, had hurt the City’s image.
Hambunda complained that newspapers had published “negative” stories based on recommendations “when it’s not a resolution yet. It puts us in a bad light,” he said.
He said the media deliberately selected the “juicy parts” of documents in matters that were not yet finalised.
“The matters submitted to members of the council are recommendations of the management committee of the local authority which are confidential until such time that council has taken a decision on such matter,” Amukugo said, citing the Act.
Furthermore, the Act makes provision for withholding documents from the public and media until “after the confirmation of the minutes.”
Hambuda remained vague on which media reports he claimed had harmed the City’s reputation, but assured journalists that the City would provide access to all information as per the Act.
“We are going to make the items and the necessary documents available, but we might not give you all the documents that we give to our councillors,” he said.