Government slow to act on FOI

EDITOR EMERITUS of The NATION, Harold Hoyte, today complained about the “slowness” of the Barbados Government to pass Freedom of Information legislation and to amend the laws on criminal defamation.
Addressing a meeting of the Inter-American Press Association at Hilton Barbados Resort, Hoyte said Barbados was “one of the slowest” Caribbean countries to act on Freedom of Information legislation, while as many as six nations had passed the legislation in the last ten years.
He charged that while Barbados was committed to removing criminal defamation from the statute books, “action is slow in coming”.
According to Hoyte, criminal defamation laws (as against civil defamation) allow for the intrusion of police into media houses and provide for arrest and detention. (TY)