Leveraging Right to Information Laws to Counter Disinformation in the MENA Region: A Strategic Framework for Transparency, Accountability, and Effective Governance

In the Middle East and North Africa, rumors move faster than press releases. When official data stay behind closed doors, false stories about budgets, contracts, or health numbers fill the gap. Right to Information (RTI) laws offer a direct remedy: they force public bodies to publish facts and answer citizens questions, cutting off the oxygen that disinformation needs to spread. Yet the region still lives with a “transparency deficit,” where secrecy and therefore disinformation remains the norm. 

The Story Behind the Numbers 

Across the Middle East and North Africa, three countries have already put RighttoInformation (RTI) laws on the books, but with wildly different strengths. Tunisia tops the regional table with 119/150 points, Lebanon follows at 72/150, and Jordan trails at 56/150 on the Global RTI Rating  

Why do these scores matter? Because every point represents another clause that obliges ministries to publish budgets, contracts or health statistics before rumors can twist them. Where the law is weak, secrecy reigns and that is exactly the habitat in which conspiracy theories thrive. 

How can RighttoInformation laws vaccinate the infosphere? 

Unlike traditional factchecking, which relies on press releases and information already in the public domain, RTI laws create a legal highway to primary documents budgets, contracts, health statistics that debunk rumors at the source. Global conventions such as UNCAC and SDG 16.10 back this approach, framing public access to records as a cornerstone of accountable governance and anticorruption work. When ministries proactively upload data, journalists and researchers spend minutes, not weeks, verifying a claim, starving false narratives of oxygen. 

What turns a statute into real transparency? 

Experience across the region reveals three indispensable ingredients. First, proactive disclosure publishing core datasets online before anyone asks narrows the window in which fabrications can spread. Second, independent oversight with power ensures that when agencies refuse publishing, a neutral body can impose deadlines and fines, transforming the right to information from polite request to enforceable duty. Third, institutional capacity, trained archivists, digitized records, and clear workflows keeps responses fast and accurate. 

Yet the human factor matters just as much. Citizens cannot invoke a right they have never heard of. Targeted awareness campaigns and classroom lessons that walk people through filing a request clarify the process and build a culture of inquiry. 

Where do we go from here? 

Robust RTI frameworks already show they can flip the script: once the official record is public, conspiracy theories lose their shine and constructive debate takes root. The next step is scaling that success. Legislators should tighten loopholes and grant watchdogs sanctioning power; ministries must digitize archives and autopublish highvalue datasets; and civilsociety organizations must move from cheerleaders to frontline users of the law filing strategic requests, litigating refusals, and openly publishing the documents they obtain to prove the system works 

Have you ever wondered how much of your city’s budget goes to public parks, or whether a new megaproject really passed an environmental review? Try filing an RTI request, share the document you unlock, and tag #MYAction so others can follow your lead. Transparency starts with a single question make yours count.