Freedom of thought, conscience and speech are identified as the significant fundamental human rights by article 39 of the Constitution of the People‟s Republic of Bangladesh. The right to obtain information is an integral part of civil liberties.
It is recognized as one of the important elements of empowering human, which is obligatory to enhance transparency and accountability in government, statuary and constitutional organizations as well as private institutions run by government or foreign funding.
It is believed that proper implementation of the RTI Act would reduce corruption and establish good governance. From this observation and belief, the government of the People‟s Republic of Bangladesh has enacted the Right to Information Act (RTI) in 2009, established the Information Commission as the law implementing authority and appointed all necessary officials.
Such enthusiastic and valiant endeavor of the government was highly appreciated both in home and abroad, hence boosted the image of the country. However, the responsibility of implementing the RTI Act, though largely lies on the Information Commission, the non-governmental organizations and the general people are responsible as well to assist in the implementation of this Act. People should learn this law and its applications to enjoy its benefits, therefore should come forward to ease the path of their empowerment.
Though only three years have been passed since the establishment of the Information Commission, the history of the right to information movement is quite long. In order to strengthen the democratic system, the Press Council recommended enacting the RTI Act in 1983.
In 2002, the Law Commission decided promulgating the RTI Act and in continuation, submitted a draft outline to the government in 2003. At a time, the civil societies, representatives of NGOs, print and electronic media, prosecutors, politicians, educationists and many others raised their voice and prepared a platform in favour of the RTI Act. Followed by this movement, the RTI Ordinance was issued in 20th October, 2008 after executing all relevant formalities.
The present Government, in pursuing their political commitment, passed the Right to Information Act, 2009 in the first assembly of the 9th National Parliament and the Act was published as an Official Gazette on 6th April, 2009.
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