By Sharon Richards, Caribbean Tech Roundup From Winn FM 98.9

Tech: Significant Differences In Caribbean Right To Information Rating Scores

There are significant discrepancies in protection for the Right to Information (RTI) iacross the Caribbean region. Assessments of two of these laws released by the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) were based on the RTI Rating, an internationally renowned tool for assessing the strength of RTI legislation developed by CLD and Access Info Europe. The RTI Rating found that the Cayman Islands’ Freedom of Information Law scored comparatively well, with 112 points out of a possible score of 150, which would be tied for 13th position globally compared to national laws. By contrast, the Bahamian Freedom of Information Bill scored just 88 points, resulting in a tie for 48th place.

Speaking about the findings, CLD’s Executive Director Toby Mendel, said “We welcome the fact that the Cayman Islands has such a strong RTI law,” commenting further he said, “This further supports the calls by local campaigners in the Bahamas for improvements to their Bill before it is passed into law, although this should not be used as an excuse to further delaying adoption of this Bill.”

Despite the differences in scores, the two laws share some critical deficiencies, including exceptions which are illegitimate in nature, overbroad or lack proper harm tests. Both laws also fail to apply a public interest override to all exceptions and exclude many public bodies from their ambit altogether.

Caribbean countries performance varied widely, with Antigua, placing ahead of the Cayman Islands with a score of 113, and the Dominican Republic, which placed a dismal 93rd among the 102 laws currently rated.

A link to the Full results for the International RTI Rating is available on the WINN FM Website: At: www.RTI-Rating.org

For more on this story go to: http://www.winnfm.com/news/local/18818-tech-significant-differences-in-caribbean-right-to-information-rating-scores