Media Coalition On RTI Block From Entering Parl…Over Passage Of RTI Bill

Members of the Media Coalition on the Right to Information (RTI) Bill were yesterday denied entry into Parliament when the group stormed the Legislative house to register their displeasure over failure to pass the bill into law.

Members (journalists) of the coalition who were cladded in branded RTI t-shirts were confronted by some police officers from the Parliament Police Station and demanded to see evidence of the groups permit to allow them on the premises.

But when they explained to the police that they were going to the public gallery to observe proceedings as private individuals, the police refused them entry.

According the police the group needed to seek permission from the leadership of the house before they will be allowed entry into the house.

The confrontation led to the arrest of two members of the coalition. Speaking in an interview with the media, the Spokesperson of the Interim Steering Committee of the coalition who also doubles as the Editor of the Finder Newspaper, Mr Elvis Darko said a security man in parliament approached him, asking that the demonstration should be peaceful.

“I told him that we are only coming to sit in Public gallery and that there is no demonstration, but he said what they (police) heard was that members of the coalition were coming to demonstrate.”

He said the high handedness of the police will not deter them from carrying out their planned activities if the house fails to heed to their call and that of many well-meaning Ghanaians who have been pushing for the passage of the RTI Bill into law.