By Benjamin Akoto, GNA
Sunyani, (Bono), May 26, GNA-Mt Stephen Owusu, the Head of the Legal Unit of the Right to Information (RTI) Commission has called for effective media collaboration to enhance public awareness and understanding of the Right to Information Act.
He said the commission needed the support of the media to strengthen their operations too, justifying that the media remained an indispensable partner in reaching out and sensitizing the masses on their rights to information.
Mr Owusu said the commission depended largely on the media to educate the public about its mandate and thereby encourage the public to apply and use the RTI law.
“We need effective media partnership, if we can reach out to the masses for them to understand the RTI Act”, he stated in an interview with the media in Sunyani.
Earlier, Mr Owusu together with Miss Genevieve Shirley Lartey, the Executive Secretary of the RTI Commission, paid courtesy to Mr Joseph Addae Akwaboa, the Bono Regional Minister as part of their visit to the Bono Region.
He said the visit was to enable them to familiarise themselves with the operations of the regional office and to seek the minister’s support towards the activities of the commission in the region.
“The RTI Commission has come to stay and remains committed to strengthening transparency and access to information”, Mr Owusu stated.
He said: “We have been in the region for almost three years now, but there is still a lot more to do for the masses to understand the RTI law and exercise their right to information”.
Mr Osbon Adomako Akuoko, the Bono Regional Head of the RTI Commission, said the commission in the region was set up on October 9, 2023 to promote transparency, accountability and fairness in public discourses.
“That is to ensure that citizens are able to obtain information held by public institutions”, he explained, noting that the Bono regional office was among the commission’s first regional offices established outside Accra, Kumasi, and Bolgatanga.
Mr Akuoko expressed the hope that the commission would continue expanding its presence across the region and beyond, saying that: “public institutions must appreciate that information in their custody belongs to the public, and that they serve only as custodians of that information”.
He said while citizens had the right to access information, the law also provided exemptions, saying that the 1992 Constitution and the RTI Act strike a balance by protecting both the applicant seeking information and the institution holding the information.
He urged public institutions and the public to deepen their understanding of the RTI Act to promote openness, accountability, and responsible information sharing.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/Kenneth Odeng Adade
26 May 2026
Reporter: Benjamin Akoto
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