Thus, section 3(c)(ii) sets, as one of the objects of the Bill, to “ensure that appropriate assistance is afforded to members of the public seeking to exercise their right of access to information in order to facilitate the exercise of the right”. [...] The Bill takes a rather unique approach here, requiring the information officer to seek the consent of the applicant for such a delay, but the effect of not obtaining consent seems merely to trigger the right of the application to lodge an appeal against the delay with the Commission. [...] In any case, the normal approach here is to leave the question of an extension to the discretion of the information officer but allow the applicant to lodge an appeal where the extension does not appear to be justified. [...] This includes an obligation to inform the 19 2 0 12 requester that the information is not held and to refer the requester to another institution or to transfer the request where the public authority knows where the information is held. [...] The primary approach taken in the Bill towards appeals is to allocate responsibility for them to the Zimbabwe Media Commission and then to leave the details to the rules regarding this body, which are found in the Constitution and another Bill, the Media Commission Bill.
Authors
- Pages
- 27
- Published in
- Canada
