Easy access at the tip of your fingers, subscribe to our daily ePaper version of our New Era Newspaper.
Home / Access to information a human right - Tweya
Access to information a human right - Tweya
2015-07-21Staff Report 2 Keetmanshoop Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Minister Tjekero Tweya says access to information is a basic human right. He made the remark last Friday when paying a courtesy call on the // Kharas Regional Governor Lucia Basson, as part of his regional familiarisation tour. Tweya says information is power and and thus every Namibian must have access to information to make Namibia an informed nation. “Information should be seen as a fundamental human right and therefore everyone is entitled to information,” he added. In reference to the 30 per cent of Namibian people who still do have access to radio services and other sources of information, Tweya said people “can’t continue to be deprived of basic and important information anymore”. Tweya elaborated that his visit was aimed at establishing which areas are still without network access so that action can be taken to address the issue. He thus requested councillors in the region to indicate the number of towers in their respective constituencies, as it will help the ministry identify which areas are not covered per constituency. “I want to know exactly where the 30 per cent that isn’t covered is, my mandate is to have the entire Namibia covered,” he emphasised. //Kharas governor Basson briefly shared the region’s problems in terms of technology and coverage, saying that most rural people are not covered and she wants to see “the trend changing for the better”. However, she fumed over the coverage of events by the media, saying that some events in her region are purposefully excluded or are only seen on TV in the morning when people are asleep. “I don’t want my events to appear on TV in the morning but at eight in the evening,” she told the ICT minister. She also called on the ministry to consider establishing a NBC office in Hardap Region as for 25 years the NBC office in //Kharas has struggled to cover two regions. The minister then visited the offices of New Era, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and the NBC before proceeding to Hardap. 2015-07-21Staff Report 2
