The government has presented the Right to Information Bill to the House of Representatives.

Minister of State for Information and Communication Dilendra Prasad Badu presented the bill for debate during today’s meeting of the HoR. The bill aims to guarantee the right of citizens to information related to public life, he said.

According to the bill, state agencies in would not, however, be liable to providing information that might pose threat to national security, national integrity, communal harmony and international relations or breach individual secrecy or safety.

It also has provisions for an independent National Information Commission whose chairman and members would be nominated by a committee headed by the Speaker of the parliament, which will have the information minister and president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists as members.

Commenting on the bill, FNJ president Bishnu Nisthuri said, “The bill as such is a positive initiative of the government as we didn’t have legal grounds to seek information. But then, it is necessary to closely examine the provisions incorporated in the bill.”

He expressed reservation on some provisions in the Right to Information Bill and suggested some changes in it. “As far as I know, the bill has a number of provisions that only serve to control information. It mentions, for example, about individual secrecy, which can effectively bar journalists from getting information and can even make them subjected to unjust actions. The parties should seriously study the bill before passing it,” the told the state-owned Radio Nepal.