Readings Transparency
Transparency: Access to Information/Official Secrets/Reporting Restrictions.
Laws ensuring access to government information and records have gained acceptance worldwide with dozens of countries having adopted freedom of information laws. But many governments, particularly in Asia, resist calls for transparency. When can the government legitimately invoke official secrecy or restrict boundaries of newsgathering? To what information does the public or the media have the right of access? How do these issues play out in different countries, including China?
Readings:
Primary:
Chapter 5 (Access to Information), Chapter 7 (Official Secrets and Sedition) and Chapter 8 (Other Restrictions on Newsgathering and Reporting) Hong Kong Media Law
“Hong Kong’s Code on Access to Information Turns 15 Years Old: Can the Right to Know Thrive Without a Law?” and “Fifteen Years of Experience Using the Code,” Chan Pui-king, www.freedominfo.org, 19 March 2010
(HK) Code of Access to Information, 1995
(HK) “Watchdog raps officials’ secrecy”, South China Morning Post, 29 Jan. 2010
(HK) Hong Kong Journalists Association calls for FOI law, 28 Jan 2010
(PRC) Fu “Can OGI Take Off in China?” China Rights Forum 2009
(PRC) Tran, “China govt opens cracks in its culture of secrecy,” Associated Press, 1 Feb. 2010
(PRC) Guo, “Study exposes poor govt transparency,” Global Times, 30 September 2010
(PRC) Open Government Information Regulation, adopted by State Council 2007, in effect 2008
(US) “First FOIA Reform Bill in More than a Decade Becomes Law,” The National Security Archive, Jan. 2, 2008
(US) “US Open Government Policy: An Experiment in Transparency, Participation and Collaboration,” www.freedominfo.org, 19 March 2010
US “Sharing Secrets at Arms’ Length,” New York Times, 30 October 2010
US Impact of Bloomberg’s FOI request for World Bank documents
(UK) “Freedom of Information: Caught in the Act,” (on the 5-year anniversary of UK’s FOIA)
The Guardian’s Freedom of Information website
(India) “India’s Right to Information Act: The First Four Years,” freedominfo.org, 13 January 2010
(Global) “Is This the Future of Journalism: Why Wikileaks Matter,” Jonathan Stray, Foreign Policy, April 2010
Case studies
–Fu King Wa’s challenge of Code on Access to Information for data on suicides on MTR tracks and HK Office of the Ombudsman’s 2007 ruling.
–Open Government Information Regulation 2007 (PRC), some early cases
–Reyes v Chile 2006 (Inter-American Court of Human Rights), (fundamental human right to access government information)
–India (FOIA enacted in 2005) and UK (FOIA in effect in 2005)