Government secrecy

A post in Wired Temples on 30 December reported that Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg will now be the only European Union member states without a proper freedom of information act once Germany adopts it's own law in the Bundestag. The post included a link to Kevin Aquilina's paper about the Malta situation which was originally published on the website of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. This information was also reported today on the Malta Independent on Sunday with an article entitled 'Freedom of Information law non-existent in Malta'. The article quotes substantially from Aquilina's useful paper and states that the German Parliament passed a freedom of information law on December 17. This last piece of information needs to be adjusted since as stated in my previous post only a first draft of the law was discussed during that parliamentary session. The Financial Times 17th Dec reported:

"Traditions of government secrecy in Britain and Germany are heading for the history books as the two countries prepare to grant greater public access to official information. In Berlin today the German parliament will debate draft rules for a freedom of information act which is expected to become law in mid-2005".

The United Kingdom has also been slow in legislating in this area but a much awaited Freedom of Information law is now finally in place. From the website freedomofinformation.co.uk:

The Freedom of Information Act (UK) came into force on January 1st 2005. It gives you the right to ask any public body for all the information they have on any subject you choose. And unless there’s a good reason, they have to give it to you within a month. You can also ask for all the personal information they hold on you. If you're in the public sector you'll be under scrutiny as never before. If you're in the private sector your public contracts, and much else, are open to all. You can also unearth valuable intelligence on your competitors and clients.

For those who are interested in campaigning for similar legislation in Malta the following sources are useful:

The freedom of information act in the UK - official website

Question and Answer - Freedom of Information - The Times (London)

An excellent weblog dedicated to freedom of information

Freedom of Information in Malta - a paper by Kevin Aquilina (pdf file)