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

must be provided to the applicant regarding any fees which are charged. Applicants must be informed on
the spot about these forms of access and the charges relating thereto. Persons with disabilities may
request access in a form that corresponds to their needs (Articles 20, 21, 26 and 27).
Duty to Publish
The Bulgarian RTI Law includes strong provisions on the duty to publish. Public bodies must “promulgate”
offi cial information contained in their offi cial documents, as well as other categories of information required
to be published by law (Article 12). Public bodies must also disseminate information about their activities,
either in published form or through announcements (Article 14). The Law also provides for the publication,
on a regular basis, of information about the public body, including a description of its powers, structure,
functions and responsibilities, a list of formal documents issued within the scope of its powers, and the
name, contact details and working hours of the offi ce authorised to receive requests for information (Article
15). The Minister of the State Administration is required to publish, on an annual basis, a summary of this
information, which “shall be made available in every administration for review by the citizens” (Article 16).
Article 14(2) requires public bodies actively to disseminate information which may prevent a threat to life,
health, security or property, which corrects previously disseminated information that was inaccurate, or
which is required by another law to be disseminated. It also calls for the dissemination of information that
could be of public interest. The precise scope of these obligations to publish is unclear. Information of
‘public interest’ could be a very broad term, depending on how it is interpreted in practice. This provision
in the Law could be seen as a way of moving to the proactive publication of practically all information that
anyone may want to access, now possible given advances in the area of information technology. The public
interest override in relation to the duty to publish is an interesting innovation not found in most other laws.
Interestingly, the Bulgarian RTI Law fails to provide for a public interest override in relation to requests for
information.
Exceptions
The Bulgarian RTI Law does not, unlike most right to information laws, include a comprehensive list of
exceptions. Instead, information classifi ed as secret pursuant to other laws is excluded from the defi nition
of public information and the Law also specifi cally states that such information shall not be disclosed. 172
This is unfortunate and contrary to international standards, as well as the practice of most other countries.
Although a number of laws from other countries do leave secrecy laws in place, most at least include
their own set of exceptions. One problem with leaving secrecy laws in place is that they rarely conform
to international or best practice standards on exceptions. In particular, few require a risk of harm before
information may be withheld.
There is no public interest override in the Law or historical time limits on secrecy. The Law on Protection
of Classifi ed Information, however, prescribes time limits, depending on the level of classifi cation, of 2, 5,
15 or 30 years (Article 34(2)). The RTI Law does, however, provide for severability of exempt information,
stating that access may either be full or partial (Articles 7(2) and 37(1)).
The Law also includes a number of further exceptions scattered throughout its provisions. In general,
these are not subject to harm tests and none of them are subject to a public interest override. Article 2(3)
provides that the Law does not apply to personal data. This is unfortunate, particularly in the absence
of a public interest override or other limitation. Public bodies hold a wide range of personal data and it
would be preferable if the exception applied only to information the disclosure of which would actually
harm a legitimate privacy interest. Article 8 excludes information that may be obtained in the course of
the provision of administrative services and information which is kept in the State archives. The former, in
particular, would cover a lot of information for which there was no legitimate secrecy interest.
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