At a meeting with nearly 5,000 journalists on the evening of January 14, Prime Minister Hun Sen said the Freedom of Information Act will be promulgated in the seventh mandate after the upcoming national election, some time in “2024 or 2025”.
“It's nothing difficult. The Ministry of Information has already drafted a law and would just need to refer it to the Cabinet for approval and then refer it to the National Assembly for passage. But first we want to gather all opinions on it so that the law will be for the good of all,” he said.
He added that some NGOs have been making excessive demands about the law’s contents and those demands required the information minister to coordinate discussion of the law with many parties.
“The law is now also under discussion regarding crimes, so it also needs the support of the Ministry of Justice,” he continued.
In its response to civil society organisations earlier on January 14, the information ministry said it was still working on finalising the contents before initiating the procedures to seek Cabinet approval for the Freedom of Information Act.
“At present, our technical teams from the information and justice ministries have already completed the consultative meetings on the chapters of the provisions of the law, but there are still a few points that need to be decided by the leadership of both ministries. We are also reviewing some of the comments on this draft law by relevant parties,” it said.
