Spokespersons face challenges in accessing information

Kathmandu, June 20: The information officers and spokespersons at government offices are considered the right officials responsible to furnish information that people deserve to know. Various ministries and departments assign the officials in this role, mentioning their names and contact numbers along with photos on the front page of the websites as well. However, it is worrying to know that most of the spokespersons at federal offices themselves face challenges to access office information. Such bitter reality was disclosed during a meeting held at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on Wednesday.

A gathering of the spokespersons from the federal ministries and constitutional commissions complained that they were facing troubles to receive information on time. Spokesperson at Information Ministry, Gajendra Kumar Thakur, informed that the meeting decided to urge the concerned ministries and commissions to share information to the spokespersons after any decisions. The meeting concluded that the spokespersons were not relayed decisions on time, forcing them to know the development after media makes news stories. As the information sharing on decisions was delayed, it was difficult to further share the information to the media, Thakur added.

Some 35 spokespersons had attended the meeting where they shared their problems and challenges. They demanded that the information access should be eased. Some spokespersons underlined the need of forging uniformity on which decision/information needs disclosure and which other needs privacy. There was neither a work procedure nor any policy relating to spokesperson, thereby shrinking their roles.

There was no clear difference between the roles of spokesperson and information officer either, they underlined. A permanent mechanism with a shared social network or Apps could be devised on easing and cooperating on information disclosure and sharing. Similarly, the spokespersons added time should be fixed for journalists to request for information eg only office hour.