SECTOR 1 1.7 Public information is easily accessible, guaranteed by law, to all citizens. Access to information in Tanzania is not legally guaranteed and information held by state authorities and public institutions is not easily accessible to citizens. There is still no access to information law in Tanzania, although some steps have been taken in this regard and a draft Access to Information Bill exists. The draft has been beset by many failed promises on the part of the state and numerous delays. Almost a decade ago, in October 2006, the government published on its website a draft Freedom of Information Bill, which “they tried to rush through”. This was rejected by stakeholders, however, because of its numerous omissions and deficiencies. Although stakeholders have been consulted on the content of the proposed freedom of information legislation, the current draft does not reflect their input. The civil society-based Coalition on the Right to Information has been working to halt this bill from proceeding into legislation as in its current state it is, ironically, mostly restrictive. “It is a mockery. The draft Access to Information Bill contains about two statements on the right to access information and 10 statements on why publicly held information cannot be disclosed.” The Public Service Act of 1962 restricts what public information civil servants, even those employed as information officers, can reveal. This is despite the fact that the government, in September 2011, signed the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Initiative, showing its commitment to make government business more open to its citizens, and thus “improve public service delivery, government responsiveness, combating corruption and building greater trust”, according to http://www.opengovpartnership.org. As a result, the web portal http://opendata.go.tz/ was set up to collect and publish data, and to date some information has been published here on what are largely considered to be non-sensitive or non-confidential issues such as health, water and education. “With the OGP initiative, government has shown some commitment towards access to information, but it is still not law.” One of the biggest problems facing e-governance is the difficulty that even government officials face in obtaining information from their colleagues. There was consensus that most civil servants are inefficient and will deliberately hide sensitive information from the public, while there is also an unspoken fear among many civil servants about the repercussions of disclosing such information. “Even if you can get some information from the government, with the new Statistics Act and Cybercrimes Act you will probably be charged with a criminal AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Tanzania 2015 21