• Home /
• Statewatch Database /
• Freedom of information stalled

Freedom of information stalled

01 August 2003

Several civil liberties groups and a number of Green MPs have called for the swift drafting and passing of the Freedom of Information Act in Germany. Since 1998, the Social Democrat/Green coalition government has been promising to pass such a law at the federal level (relevant regulations already exist in the Länder of North Rhine Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg and Berlin), but certain economic interest groups and representatives from the ministry of economy, the defence ministry and the civil service are blocking this.

For the economic sector, the introduction of a general civic right to access governmental records poses a potential risk to their "corporate secrets". For the administration it would imply the creation of transparency in its own departments. The civil liberties group Humanistische Union e.V., the investigative journalists association Netzwerk Recherche and the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, amongst others, are therefore calling for the passing of the Freedom of Information Act which, in its coalition agreement, the government promised to introduce five years ago. The pressure groups are currently developing minimum demands towards such a law and are planning to draw up their own draft "white paper". Manfred Redelfs of Netzwerk Recherche explains that:

In order for the German administration to finally free itself from the remnants of authoritarian state structures, it is obviously necessary for the public to increase its pressure. If the administration cannot draft a comprehensive and modern civil right to inspect public records which is intelligible to every citizen, we will obviously have to help them with this task.

Humanistische Union press release; Netzwerk Recherche, Transparency International 27.5.03 and
humanistische-union.de/2003/2003-03,akteneinsicht,nrw.pdf

For more information on the current situation see:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-01.09.03-004/
and http://www.netzwerkrecherche.de/html/vs2.htm
Self-help guide on how to exercise the right to access public information, by the Humanistische Union:http://files.