People have a right to know of public places with Covid-19 cases: CIJ

 

COVID-19 | The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) has called for full and transparent disclosure of all public places with known positive Covid-19 cases, citing the public's rights to make informed decisions on matters affecting their lives.

This was contrary to Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah's reported remarks yesterday that the Health Ministry will not disclose the names of public places where Covid-19 cases were detected, to avoid stigmatising these premises and sparking fear among the public.

CIJ executive director Wathshlah G Naidu said all Covid-19 related information and data held by public bodies must be made public and shared across the board for safety and transparency.

"The principle of transparency and public access during this crisis must trump the old way of decision-making.

"The state and its actors cannot unilaterally withhold from the public essential information that implicates our lives and decisions," she said in a statement today.

At the same time, Wathshlah said the disclosure on grounds of public interest must be balanced with privacy and data protection measures.

"For example, patient confidentiality should be maintained, and so it is the obligation of the public bodies to respect personal autonomy and privacy by not disclosing personal details of individual patients so as to avoid stigmatisation, discrimination, or other forms of reprisals.

"However, this same requirement does not necessarily apply to public spaces or high-density places such as schools, condominiums, or malls," she added.

Alluding to criticisms of certain government measures, Wathshlah said disclosing relevant information of public interest would allow the public to understand and evaluate the government's responses.

This would be on top of enabling the public to make informed decisions on whether to frequent the locations, avoid or keep the necessary distance, or adopt appropriate safeguards and precautionary measures when they have to frequent said location or place.

"Furthermore, disclosing the locations of newly detected areas or premises where a Covid-19 patient had frequented would augment contact tracing efforts by advising members of the public who may have potentially been exposed to come forward for testing and reduce the risk of further transmission, in a speedier manner," she added.

The government had since the start of the outbreak in March increased efforts to crack down on Covid-19 related disinformation, with 273 investigation papers opened up until Oct 21.

Wathshlah, however, cautioned that a failure of the government to disclose the names of affected places or premises could lead to an "infodemic" where misinformation or disinformation on alleged affected places could be spread as there would be no reliable or verifiable source to counter such information.

"This could, in fact, lead to unnecessary anxiety and panic as well as breed further hatred and discrimination," she said.

As part of its larger advocacy role on the public's right to information, Wathshlah said the latest developments are evidence of a need for a standalone Right to Information Act, on top of a repeal of the archaic Official Secrets Act.

On Tuesday, Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming urged the ministry to emulate Singapore in revealing locations affected to empower the public to take precautions.

Singapore publishes a list of locations where patients had visited for more than 30 minutes, while they were infectious. - Mkini