SECTOR 1 country. He had also filed a complaint against the newspaper, which had been sentenced to three months’ suspension in April. In breach of the relevant legislation, John Akintola was arrested and held in custody for insulting the Head of State. During the trial, he refused to publish his sources. Regarding whistleblowers or informers, a member stressed that they are protected by the Criminal Procedure Code and the Anti-Corruption Act. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 1.5 (2007=1.0; 2009=1.3; 2011=1.0) 1.7 Public information is easily accessible, guaranteed by law, to all citizens. We note the absence of any law governing access to information in Benin. Public information is not easily accessible and is not guaranteed for all citizens. The principle of access to information is implemented half-heartedly in Benin. In the chapter on the declaration on the rights of journalists contained in the Code of Ethics of the Beninese press, Article 21 stipulates that “the journalist shall have access to all sources of information in the exercise of his/her profession and shall have the right to investigate freely all facts influencing public life”. The bill on the Information Code was introduced in Parliament only in 2014. One part of this bill is devoted to access to information, thus giving the impression that the matter concerns only journalists and the media. Furthermore, since 2014 another joint initiative of civil society organisations, in particular WANEPBénin, the media and political figures consisted of setting up a coalition aimed at adopting a law on public access to information for all citizens, including journalists. WANEP-Bénin is presently working on this law with the said coalition and has begun an effective advocacy campaign with a view to its adoption. In spite of the work conducted by the coalition as well as the bill on the Information and Communications Code which has been forwarded to the National Assembly, 72 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER BENIN 2014