Freedom of Information: A Comparative Legal Survey - Federation of ...

Group to discuss the right to information. The Expert Group adopted a document setting out a number of
principles and guidelines on ‘freedom of information’, including the following:
Freedom of information should be guaranteed as a legal and enforceable right permitting
every individual to obtain records and information held by the executive, the legislative
and the judicial arms of the state, as well as any government owned corporation and any
other body carrying out public functions. 50
These principles and guidelines were endorsed by the Commonwealth Law Ministers at their May 1999
Meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. At the same time, the Ministers formulated a number of key
principles governing the right to information. 51 They also called on the Commonwealth Secretariat to take
steps to promote these principles, including by assisting governments through technical assistance and
sharing of experiences.
The Law Ministers’ Communiqué was considered by the Committee of the Whole on Commonwealth
Functional Co-operation whose report, later approved by the Heads of Government, 52 stated:
The Committee took note of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Principles
endorsed by Commonwealth Law Ministers and forwarded to Heads of Government. It
recognized the importance of public access to offi cial information, both in promoting
transparency and accountable governance and in encouraging the full participation of
citizens in the democratic process. 53
The Commonwealth Secretariat has taken some concrete steps to promote the right to information in
member countries. It has, for example, drafted model laws on the right to information and on privacy. 54
International Jurisprudence
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
In a 1985 Advisory Opinion, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, interpreting Article 13, referred to
the dual nature of the right to freedom of expression, which protected both the right to impart, as well as
to seek and to receive, information and ideas, noting:
Article 13 … establishes that those to whom the Convention applies not only have the right
and freedom to express their own thoughts but also the right and freedom to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas of all kinds…. [Freedom of expression] requires, on the
one hand, that no one be arbitrarily limited or impeded in expressing his own thoughts. In
that sense, it is a right that belongs to each individual. Its second aspect, on the other hand,
implies a collective right to receive any information whatsoever and to have access to the
thoughts expressed by others. 55
The Court also stated: “For the average citizen it is just as important to know the opinions of others or
to have access to information generally as is the very right to impart his own opinion”, concluding that “a
society that is not well-informed is not a society that is truly free.” 56 Although the Court did not go so far,
at that time, as to recognise the right to access information held by public bodies, it did provide a solid
jurisprudential basis for such recognition.
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