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

105. See, for example, Handyside v. United Kingdom, 7 December 1976, Application No.
5493/72, para. 49.
106. Castells v. Spain, 24 April 1992, Application No. 11798/85, para. 43.
107. UN Human Rights Committee General Comment 25, 12 July 1996.
108. See Australian Capital Television v. The Commonwealth; State of New South Wales v. The
Commonwealth (1992) 177 CLR 106 (High Court) and Nationwide News Pty Ltd v. Wills
(1992) 108 ALR 681 (High Court).
109. S.P. Gupta v. President of India [1982] AIR (SC) 149, p. 232.
110. Transparency International, Global Corruption Report 2003: Special Focus: Access to
Information (London: Profi le Books, 2003).
111. Ibid., p. 6.
112. UN General Assembly Resolution 58/4 of 31 October 2003, in force 14 December 2005.
As at the time of writing, the Convention had 104 States Parties and 140 signatories.
See http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CAC/signatories.html. The text of the
Convention is available at: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CAC/index.html.
The Council of Europe has also adopted both a Civil Law Convention on Corruption, 4
November 1999, ETS No. 174 and a Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, 27 January
1999, ETS No. 173, although neither provide for public access to information. Similarly,
the 1996 Inter-American Convention Against Corruption does not provide for access to
information.
113. Available at: http://www.africa-union.org/Offi cial_documents/Treaties_%20Conventions_
%20Protocols/Convention%20on%20Combating%20Corruption.pdf. As of October 2007,
the Convention had been ratifi ed by 24 countries. It came into force in August 2006.
114. Repeta, Lawrence, Local Government Disclosure Systems in Japan, National Bureau of
Asian Research, Paper Number 16, October 1999, p. 3.
115. S.P. Gupta v. President of India, note 109, p. 234.
116. Sung Nak-in, Korea Country Report (English summary), presented at the Asian
Conference on Civil Society and Access to Government-Held Information, Tokyo,
Japan, 13-14 April 2001.
117. Casas Cordero et al v. The National Customs Service. A Spanish version of the decision is
available at: http://www.justiceinitiative.org/db/resource2?res_id=103745.
118. Houchins v. KQED, Inc., 438 US 1 (1978), p. 15.
119. The relevant part of the First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law …
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of the people to
peacefully assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
120. See the chapter on Sweden.
121. Banisar, D., Freedom of Information Around the World 2006: A Global Survey of Access to
Government Information Laws (Privacy International, 2006), Appendix A. Available at:
http://www.privacyinternational.org/foi/foisurvey2006.pdf.
122. Technically a regulation and not a law but still with binding legal force.
123. The World Bank Policy on the Disclosure of Information (Washington, D.C.: World
Bank, 1994). The most recent version dates from 2002 and is available at: http://
www1.worldbank.org/operations/disclosure/documents/disclosurepolicy.pdf.
124. OP-102 Disclosure of Information, Inter-American Development Bank, December 1994.
The latest version, entitled Disclosure of Information Policy and effective January 2004,
is available at: http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=781675.
125. Disclosure of Information Policy, African Development Bank Group. The latest version,
entitled Policy on Disclosure of Information, is dated October 2005 and is available
at: http://www.afdb.org/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/ADB_ADMIN_PG/DOCUMENTS/
NEWS/AFDB%20GROUP%20POLICY%20ON%20DISCLOSURE%20OF%20INF
ORMATION.DOC.
126. Confi dentiality and Disclosure of Information, Asian Development Bank, August 1994.
The latest version, entitled Public Communications Policy, came into effect in March
2005 and is available at: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Policies/PCP/PCP-R-Paper.
pdf.
127. Policy on Disclosure of Information, European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, 1996. The latest version, entitled Public Information Policy and approved
May 2006, is available at: http://www.ebrd.com/about/policies/pip/pip.pdf.
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