Report notes gap between information laws and reality

Region :Eastern Europe-Central Eurasia
Country :None
Topic :Press Freedom, Media Laws, Access to Information, Publications

Over the past decade, most countries in Europe and Central Asia have enacted laws that better guarantee the right to access public information, a recent report says. However, there remains a sizable gap between those laws and actual practice.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recently completed a comprehensive survey of information access laws in its 56 participating states. Broadly, the survey found that 45 of those governments have adopted laws that support the public right to get information.

But, in practice, implementation of these laws varies widely and often presents obstacles. For example, many of these countries unnecessarily classify broad categories of information as “state secrets,” the report says.

And in 29 states, journalists and other citizens—not just public officials—can face prosecution for revealing government secrets. Related to that problem, authorities in many OSCE states can try to force journalists to reveal their confidential sources.

The OSCE report also offers specific recommendations that encourage governments to enact laws that more closely embrace the idea of freedom of information—that the public’s right to know supercedes the government’s interest in keeping secrets.

Miklos Haraszti, OSCE media freedom representative, released the findings on May 1. More information, including a survey summary and country-by-country reports, is available at http://osce.org/fom/.

OSCE

Источник: http://osce.org/fom/