Technical-Scientific Commission on Covid-19: Opinions are kept under “state secret” – Mozambique

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Technical-Scientific Commission on Covid-19: Opinions are kept under “state secret” – Mozambique

8:42 CAT | 11 Mar 2021

File photo: Lusa

The Centre of Public Integrity (CIP) has been denied access to the opinions issued by the Technical-Scientific Commission for Preventing and Responding to the Covid-19 Pandemic on the grounds that the commission’s deliberations are “classified information,” more specifically “state secret”.

In order to understand the causes that led the government of Mozambique to decide to relax Covid-19 preventative measures during the Christmas and New Year celebrations, the CIP on February 9 requested access to the opinions of the Technical-Scientific Commission.

A few weeks later, the CIP has made public the negative response received from the Presidency of the Republic on March 5, alleging that the production of the Scientific Technical Commission constitutes “classified information”, specifically, “state secrets”.

“The presidency referred to Decree No. 84/2018, of 26 December, which establishes the National Archives System of the State. The Decree defines “matters of a technical-scientific nature of high national interest” as “State Secret”. Thus, the Presidency of the Republic believes that the opinions of the Technical-Scientific Commission are [included] in this category and therefore should not be shared with the public,” a statement released by CIP reads.

“It would, however, be important to explain in detail the reasons that lead to the cataloguing of the commission’s opinions as ‘classified information’, given that these are later reflected in the decisions taken by the Government, and which have a direct impact on the individual and collective lives of citizens,” reads the CIP communique.

Public interest

In the same statement, CIP says it “disagrees with the government’s decision”, and claims that the refusal to share the decisions of the Technical-Scientific Commission “inhibits social monitoring” being a “pretext for not rendering account to the citizen”.

“The CIP understands that the matter dealt with by the Commission is of public interest and that it does not pose any threat to the security of the State, so it cannot be restricted to members of the Government, mainly due to the context of public calamity resulting from the spread of Covid-19 , which requires conscious action by the citizen in the fulfilment of preventive measures,” the CIP explains.

Governo Qualifica os Pareceres da Comissão Técnico-Científica da COVID-19 de “Segredo do Estado”
Leia o texto na íntegra: https://t.co/QTkNITjUly

— CIP-Mozambique (@CIPMoz) March 11, 2021

The CIP further argues that the commission’s technical-scientific production should be published in the Bulletin of the Republic for the public consumption of all Mozambicans, further requesting that the classifying of information of public interest as a “state secret” be better-founded.

Appeal to the Administrative Tribunal

In view of this, the statement announces, the CIP will take the matter to the Administrative Tribunal under the Law on the Right to Information, requesting that the tribunal order the Technical-Scientific Commission to grant public access to the reports and opinions in question.

The “politicisation” of the commission and it being closed to media scrutiny were brought up for discussion, in February, by former minister of health and medical doctor Hélder Martins, when he resigned from the commission, of which he had been a member since its creation.

At the time, he claimed that “there were many times when the commission’s recommendations were ignored”, and criticised the government for taking “decisions either in matters where the commission was not heard, or absolutely contrary to what the commission recommended”.

Source: Deutsche Welle