DUSHANBE, December 14, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Legal and practical aspects of access to information in Tajikistan are a major topic of a roundtable entitled “Access to Information – Guarantee of Transparency and Accountability” that is taking place in Dushanbe today.

The meeting is staged by Tajik Journalists’ Union, the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (Nansmit) and the Tajik Association of Independent Electronic Media (TajANSMI) in cooperation with the OSCE Office in Tajikistan.

According to Nansmit’s monitoring service, the main objective of the meeting is in discussing different aspects of access to information in the country against the backcloth of government’s decree obligating journalists to pay for information obtained from officials.

Representatives of ministries and organizations, heads of local media, media organizations as well as representatives of diplomatic missions and international organizations active in the country have been invited to attend the meeting, the source said.