SECTOR 1 d. e. to promote transparency and accountability in all organs of the State by providing the public with timely, accessible and accurate information; and to empower the public to effectively scrutinise and participate in Government decisions that affect them. However, while the laws on access to information are rather progressive, the challenge is that full implementation remains lacking. “Implementation is poor, and the authorities still hide behind the Official Secrets Act.” For example, per the Act, information officers and/or public relations officers, were supposed to be appointed in each Ministry to ensure information sought is disseminated. This has not been done in all ministries and government offices. “Citizens have asked for information, but certain information that they ask for is not provided. Also, the law talks of 21 days within which information should be given. For the media, this hinders the ability to publish accurate and timely information. So it’s not very enabling when it comes to media.” “Just to get information, you have to go to your own measures. For example, I have to go personally to the stakeholder and seek for the information. A story that would have taken one week to produce may end up taking three weeks. But you try to interface and tell them that public knowledge on the issue could be beneficial to them.” “The media struggles to get even basic information. For example, just to get information on how much was spent on a hospital, you can’t get that info. So sometimes, we have to pay our own people to get the information they need. Seriously, media have to go to their own lengths to get the information. ATI needs to be operationalized. Most ministries have PROs, but they only talk about issues on their own interest. They won’t talk on anything that will implicate them.” The concept of access to information is not fully understood by many people – including citizens, journalists and government officials. In a test of the ATI Act, the Monitor took the Ministry of Energy to court to get information on oil agreements signed with exploration companies. The paper lost the case, but even so “there has been some positive change in government action”. “The practice of government in relation to oil-related information has changed. Today, information on oil and oil-related activities is being provided more proactively, thanks to a combination of media and legislative pressure in 2011 for government to comply with laws on the oil and energy sector.” The ease with which information is accessed also depends largely on what the information might be used for. “Broadly speaking, there is a lot of access to information. Where it becomes tricky to obtain is when you get into dark areas where there is the potential for things to be manipulated.” AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2016 23