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

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is being used to supply material for reports. If the information is false or discriminatory, he
shall have the right to demand that it be removed, be kept confi dential or updated, without
violating the confi dentiality of news sources.
Inclusion of the right to information among the constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms is a clear
indication of its status as a fundamental human right in these countries. It is particularly signifi cant that
so many modern constitutions include this as a guaranteed right, illustrating the growing recognition of it
as such.
Right to information Legislation
Right to information laws, giving practical effect to the right to access information, have existed for more
than 200 years, but few are more than 20 years old. However, there is now a veritable wave of right to
information legislation sweeping the globe and, in the last fi fteen years, numerous such laws have been
passed in countries in every region of the world, while a large number of other countries have made a
commitment to adopt right to information legislation.
The history of right to information laws can be traced back to Sweden where, as noted above, a law on
this has been in place since 1766. Another country with a long history of right to information legislation
is Colombia, whose 1888 Code of Political and Municipal Organization allowed individuals to request
documents held by government agencies or in government archives. The USA passed a right to information
law in 1967 and this was followed by legislation in Denmark (1970), Norway (1970), France (1978), the
Netherlands (1978), Australia (1982), Canada (1982) and New Zealand (1982).
A 2006 Report lists 69 countries with right to information laws, along with another fi ve countries with
national right to information regulations and rules. 121 Since then, a number of laws have been adopted
including in China, 122 Jordan and Nepal. It is now the case that countries in every region of the world have
adopted right to information laws. There is, therefore, a very signifi cant global trend towards adopting right
to information legislation. The growing imperative to pass right to information legislation is indicative of
its status.
Intergovernmental Organisations
These national developments fi nd their parallel in the adoption of information disclosure policies by a
growing number of inter-governmental organisations (IGOs). Many IGOs, which for most of their existence
operated largely in secret, or disclosed information purely at their discretion, are now acknowledging the
importance of public access to the information that they hold. A signifi cant milestone in this process was
the adoption of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which put enormous pressure
on international institutions to implement policies on public participation and access to information.
Since the adoption of the Rio Declaration, the World Bank 123 and all four regional development banks – the
Inter-American Development Bank, 124 the African Development Bank Group, 125 the Asian Development
Bank 126 and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 127 – have adopted information
disclosure policies. These policies, although for the most part fl awed in important respects, are an
important recognition of the right to access information. Furthermore, a series of rolling reviews at most
of these institutions has lead to more information being made available over time.
A civil society movement, the Global Transparency Initiative (GTI), has adopted a Transparency Charter
for International Financial Institutions: Claiming our Right to Know, setting out the GTI’s demands for IFI
openness. 128 Over time, many international fi nancial institutions are accepting at least some of the key