scholarly journals The Right to Information Act in Bangladesh: An Analysis in the Light of Johannesburg Principles of Freedom of Information Legislation

IIUC Studies ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 73-90
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hasan Murad ◽  
Kazi Arshadul Hoque

Today's knowledge based world is now resonating with the call for meaningful democracy backed by transparency and accountability in the state engine and people’s right of access to information has gained a great importance. In a modern democratic state, the right to information, more popularly described as the ‘right to know,’ is an indispensable prerequisite. There is no denying the fact that the notion of freedom of thought, of conscience, of speech and rule of law become worthless if the people are deprived of access to information. There appears to have been a universal recognition of the demand and necessity for the establishment of people’s right of access to information. The experience in other countries suggests that this scenario can be changed by empowering people with right to information or freedom of information. The translation of right to information into law has to be done considering a number of principles which are required to be addressed in the law. The article presents an overview of the concept of right to information and attempts to discuss the principles underpinning right to information along with an analysis of to what extent those principles are reflected in the right to information law of Bangladesh. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/iiucs.v7i0.12261 IIUC Studies Vol.7 2011: 73-90

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (38) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianne Brito de Cal Athias ◽  
Gabriela Ohana Rocha Freire

A lei de acesso à informação e a tutela de improbidade administrativa   The information access law and the administrative improbity guarantee [1]Gabriela Ohana Rocha Freire* Arianne Brito de Cal Athias** REFERÊNCIA FREIRE, Gabriela Ohana Rocha; ATHIAS, Arianne Brito de Cal.  A lei de acesso à informação e a tutela de improbidade administrativa. Revista da Faculdade de Direito da UFRGS, Porto Alegre, n. 38, p. 154-177, ago. 2018. RESUMOABSTRACTA Constituição da República de 1988 assegura, no bojo do art. 5º, XVI, que o acesso à informação é um direito de todos, sendo resguardado o sigilo da fonte quando necessário ao exercício profissional. Ademais, a própria CF/88 institui por meio do seu art. 37 o princípio da publicidade como um elemento basilar para reger a Administração Pública. Nesse contexto, insurge a Lei 12.527/2011, conhecida como Lei de Acesso à Informação - LAI, reforçando o cumprimento do direito de acesso às informações, priorizando a ideia de Estado Democrático de Direito a fim de garantir a ampla transparência aos atos públicos. Como todo texto normativo, em caso de descumprimento de um direito, a LAI prevê apuração de possível ato de improbidade administrativa e a aplicação de medidas sancionatórias. Desta feita, o presente artigo digna-se a analisar a tutela de improbidade com fundamento nas Leis nº 12.527/2011 e 8.429/92, demonstrando se todo ato administrativo tido, em tese, como improbo será capaz de ensejar punição processual nas esferas administrativas e/ou judicial, partindo da observância dos critérios avaliativos para a concretização e/ou descaracterização do ato. The Republic Constitution from 1988 assures in the bulge of 5th art., XVI that the access to information is a everyone’s right, and the confidentiality of the source is protected when necessary for professional practice, in addition, the FC/88 itself establishes, through its art. 37, the publicity principle as a basic element to govern the Public Administration. In this context, it insures the Law 12,527/2011, known as the Access to Information Law- AIL, reinforcing compliance with the right of access to information, prioritizing the idea of a Democratic State of Law in order to guarantee the broad transparency of public acts. Like any normative text, in case of noncompliance of a right, the AIL provides for the clearance of possible administrative improbability and the application of sanctioning measures. As a result, this work aims to examine the guardianship of impropriety based on Laws no.12.527/2011 and 8.429/92, demonstrating whether any administrative act held in theory as improbable will be capable of inducing procedural punishment at the administrative and/or judicial sphere, starting from the observance of the evaluation criteria for concretization and/or de-characterization of the act. PALAVRAS-CHAVEKEYWORDSEstado Democrático de Direito. Lei de Acesso à Informação – 12.527/2011. Transparência. Improbidade Administrativa.  Lei 8.429/92.Democratic State. Access to Information Act – 12.527/2011. Transparency. Administrative Dishonesty. Law 8.429 / 92.* Mestranda em Direito pelo PPGD da Universidade Federal do Estado do Pará. Especialização em Direito Público pelo Centro Universitário do Estado do Pará. Membro da Comissão de Defesa dos Direitos do Consumidor da OAB/PA. Bacharel em Direito pela Universidade da Amazônia. Advogada.** Professora Adjunta III da Universidade Federal do Pará, cedida ao Ministério Público do Estado do Pará para exercer o cargo em comissão de Assessor do Procurador-Geral de Justiça. Professora Titular I da Universidade da Amazônia e Coordenadora Adjunta do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direitos Fundamentais (Mestrado). Professora da Faculdade Metropolitana da Amazônia. Doutora em Direito Administrativo pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (2007). Mestre em Direito pela Universidade da Amazônia (2001).


2021 ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
Alla IVANOVSKA ◽  
Olena HALUS ◽  
Iryna RYZHUK

It is found that the right to information about the activities of public authorities is linked to the more general constitutional right of everyone to freely collect, store and disseminate information in any lawful manner. The analyzed law is subject to international and domestic rules governing the right of access to information in general. At the same time, this right is regulated in great detail by special regulations that establish additional guarantees. An important guarantee that ensures the realization of the right of citizens to information about the activities of public authorities is the principle of transparency, which applies in many democracies around the world. The principle of transparency is manifested, firstly, in the fact that public authorities are obliged to inform the public about their activities, and secondly, every member of society has the appropriate right to receive such information, and the level of access to information about activities of public authorities is very important. Forms of exercising the right to information about the activities of public authorities, taking into account the peculiarities of legal regulation, are divided into passive and active. The passive form presupposes that the citizen himself gets acquainted with the information about the activity of the public authority, which duty is to make it public. An active form of exercising this right involves direct appeals of citizens or their groups to public authorities with requests to provide relevant information. It is concluded that ensuring the exercise of the right to information about the activities of public authorities is the key to building a democratic state governed by the rule of law and relies on public authorities, which are obliged to create all conditions for public participation in the adoption of legal acts by these bodies and to provide adequate access to complete and objective information about their activities.


Author(s):  
Monica Teresa Sousa ◽  
Leonardo Valles Bento

Right to information means the right of citizens to have access to information produced by, or held by, public/governmental agencies. This chapter intends to analyze the legal grounds of the right to access to information in Brazil as compared to the best international practice. One of the main risks to good governance and democracy is the use of public resources for private purposes, and the development of new communication technologies, especially the Internet, has revolutionized the manner in which the public interacts with the information available, impacting democratic practices. In November 2011, the adoption of Federal Law 12,527 made Brazil the 89th country in the world, and the 19th in Latin America, to adopt specific legislation implementing the right to access to public information. In Brazil, public authorities, especially the courts, tend to accept easily the allegations of violation of privacy and defamation of those whose interests are harmed or threatened by the broadcasting of information. In the conflict between access to information and private interests, the latter has prevailed. In this context, the Access to Information Law has become a relevant policy to the Brazilian civil society to strengthen and consolidate a democratic political culture and promote institutional maturity.


Author(s):  
Paul Sturges

It is through freedom of information legislation that states come closest to providing the full mechanism for access to files. Because the library holds information resources and provides services that promise access to information, it seems natural to suggest that the library, particularly the national library, is an agent for freedom of information. But the first element of true freedom of information is that a set of transparent and effective mechanisms exists so as to allow the right of access to be realized in practice; the second element is that access to files should not require the demonstration of any ‘need to know’. National libraries have collections of great size and diversity, and they can call on the resources of other libraries, nationally and internationally; but they are seldom open to all. Library access mechanisms can also be unduly complex, to the extent that only the committed user can get full value from them; in effect, libraries operate on a ‘need to know’ system. Libraries serve many invaluable purposes, but they are not so much agents of freedom of information as iconic representations of national commitment to freedom of information.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-219
Author(s):  
Ardita Shehaj

Abstract Transparency and the right to information are among the most important components of good governance, strong and stable democracy, citizen’s participation and the fight against corruption. The right to information is a constitutional right that is guaranteed not only by freedom of information law but also from the Albanian constitution. This legal framework is ranked 6th in the world and guarantees not only citizens right to access public information but also obliges institutions to proactively disclose information. Beside the fact that the Albanian legal framework is a very good one, it is very important to know citizens perception regarding the necessity of this right. For this reason, a survey was conducted and the data show that citizen education and their contact with the law are not enough for the proper implementation of this law. Public awareness is needed not only to explain how to exercise the right to access information but especially to explain the importance of this law in the fight against corruption.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Caroline Muller Bittencourt ◽  
Janriê Rodrigues Reck

Trata-se de artigo científico voltado à definição do direito à informação e à transparência, e suas relações com a Democracia e o controle social, e a partir dessa perspectiva proceder críticas aos portais de transparência de Municípios ante os dados coletados no Rio Grande do Sul em sua execução da Lei de Acesso à Informação, permitindo apontar críticas a própria Lei. O problema que envolve este trabalho é: quais as críticas que podem ser formuladas à Lei de Acesso à Informação a partir da experiência dos portais de transparência com base em uma leitura complexa da interação acesso à informação e Democracia? O objetivo é demonstrar que os portais não atendem satisfatoriamente um conceito rigoroso de democracia, e que parcial responsabilidade pode ser atribuída à Lei de Acesso à Informação. O método de procedimento da pesquisa foi o bibliográfico na parte do artigo, e empírico, com consultas aos portais, classificação e crítica, na segunda. This is a scientific article focused on the definition of the right to information and transparency, and its relations with Democracy and social control, around the transparency portals of Municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul in its implementation of the Access to Information Law. The problem that involves this work is: what criticisms can be made to the Access to Information Law from the experience of transparency web-portals based on a complex reading of the interaction access to information and Democracy? The objective is to demonstrate that the portals do not meet satisfactorily a strict concept of democracy, and that partial responsibility can be attributed to the Access to InformationLaw. The method of procedure of the research was the bibliographical in the first part of the article, and empirical, with queries to the web-portals, classification and criticism, in the second.


Author(s):  
Patrick Lamoureux

AbstractAccess to information and freedom of information (ATI/FOI) requests are an increasingly utilized means of generating data in the social sciences. An impressive multi-disciplinary and international literature has emerged which mobilizes ATI/FOI requests in research on policing, national security, and imprisonment. Absent from this growing literature is work which deploys ATI/FOI requests in research on higher education institutions (HEIs). In this article I examine the use of ATI/FOI requests as a methodological tool for producing data on HEIs. I highlight the data-generating opportunities that this tool offers higher education researchers and provide a first-hand account of how ATI/FOI requests can be mobilized in higher education research. I argue that despite the value of ATI/FOI requests for producing data on academic institutions, the information management practices of HEIs limit the effectiveness of ATI/FOI in ways that I detail drawing on my experience using information requests to scrutinize the quality assurance of undergraduate degree programs in Ontario. I suggest that in an age of rankings and league tables HEIs are likely to prioritize the protection of their reputation over the right of access. In conclusion I consider the implications of the article’s findings for higher education researchers and ATI/FOI users.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-461
Author(s):  
Uchechukwu Nwoke

AbstractInformation is essential for the functioning of modern societies. Access to information denotes the right of citizens to obtain information regarding how they are governed. In 2011, Nigeria enacted the Freedom of Information Act, to ensure openness and transparency in public governance. This article evaluates the extent to which the legislation has strengthened the right of access to information in Nigeria. Through analysis of the provisions of the act and some decided cases, the article argues that challenges, both in the act's provisions and in its enforcement by the courts, have resulted in a “blunted” law that lacks the capacity to satisfy the people's expectations on the right of access to public information. Drawing on the experience of other jurisdictions where similar laws are operative (notably South Africa and India), the article suggests ways through which the implementation of the act could be made more effective.


Author(s):  
Dr. R Balasubramaniam ◽  
M N Venkatachaliah

This chapter focuses on the passing of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in 2005, an important milestone in the history of democratic India which conferred upon common people the right to request information from any ‘public authority’. This Act, comparable to the Freedom of Information Act (USA) has tremendous potential to tackle corruption and asymmetry of information in public, and it is therefore imperative that every citizen of the country knows about this act. The chapter then looks at how the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) undertook a campaign-on-foot to create awareness about RTI among the people of some 120 villages in 2008. Covering five districts in South Karnataka, the campaigners interacted with thousands of people in about a month on not just people's right to information, but also on different issues related to democratic development including corruption, accountability, and citizen's responsibility.


2011 ◽  
pp. 235-254
Author(s):  
Sonja Bugdahn

Critics of the notion or concept of “information society” have often made claims to put the new ICTs into a more historical and institutional context. As a response, in this chapter, the more than 200-year-old right of access to governmental information is selected as a reference point. A comprehensive review of literature reveals that this right can be analyzed from various perspectives. Examples are the politics, policy, and polity perspective; the market perspective; and the citizenship perspective. Each perspective highlights different aspects of the impacts a right of access to information can possibly have. The citizenship perspective turns out to be particularly interesting, because the traditional, but changeable concept of citizenship, and the right of access to information interact with each other. In a second step, the same perspectives can be utilized for an analysis of documents and literature on new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in order to determine whether truly new and original elements are added to what has previously been analyzed in terms of access to information rights. The application of the freedom of information perspectives to Internet-based access to information allows for the identification of interesting research questions on the changing concept of citizenship, the future of national and transnational governance and the future of regulation.


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