[open-government] Access Info condemns German Government attempts to block dissemination of documents obtained using FOI law

[Andreas Pavlou]

Apologies for crossposting...

Andreas

-- 
Andreas Pavlou
Access Info Europe
+34 913 656 558
twitter: @andreaspavlou skype: andreas.pavlou1987
www.access-info.org www.asktheEU.org www.opengovstandards.org



  Access Info condemns German Government attempts to block dissemination
  of documents obtained using FOI law

/Madrid, 23 January 2014/ – Access Info Europe today condemned the cease 
and desist order sent by the German Government to information request 
platform FragdenStaat.de <http://www.fragdenstaat.de>, requiring it to 
take offline a document written by government staff and obtained under 
Germany’s access to information law on the grounds of protection of 
copyright.

The document is an opinion about a German Federal Constitutional Court 
judgement that had declared the 5% minimum share of votes for political 
parties to take seats in the European elections as unconstitutional. 
Contrary to the opinion – which also stated that any other kind of 
threshold would also be unconstitutional – in 2013 the German Bundestag 
approved a 3% minimum for European elections.

Access Info recalls that the right of access to information has been 
linked to the right to freedom of expression by the European Court of 
Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee. Hence, those who receive 
a document though an information request should have the right to 
disseminate it. [1]

“/In trying to suppress publication of the document obtained through 
exercising the right to information, the German government is limiting 
public debate on an important matter, possibly to avoid criticism or 
embarrassment,/” stated Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access 
Info Europe.

“/As well as being a violation of freedom of expression and information, 
this cease and desist order is absurd,/” she added. “/It is not logical 
to prevent sharing of a document which has been released to one 
requester as any other member of the public would also be able to obtain 
it via an information request./”

Access Info Europe has posted the document on its website (see here 
<http://www.access-info.org/en/national-campaigns/533-fragdenstaat-statement>), 
and many other websites around the world are mirroring the document as a 
way of protecting the rights to freedom of expression and information.

Access Info Europe calls on the German authorities to withdraw the cease 
and desist order and to amend its copyright regime, adopting open 
licences for all documents prepared by government officials.

Access Info Europe notes that Germany has one of the weaker access to 
information regimes in the world, being in position 91 out of the 95 
countries with access to information laws (see RTI Rating 
<http://www.rti-rating.org>). Germany is one of relatively few European 
countries not to have recognised access to information as a fundamental 
right in its constitution.[3]

You can find out more about the case and the FragdenStaat.de press 
release here 
<https://fragdenstaat.de/presse/2014-01-21-bmi-mahnt-fragdenstaat-ab/#top>.


        For more information, please contact:

*Helen Darbishire | *Access Info Europe
helen at access-info.org <mailto:helen at access-info.org> +34 667 685 319

*Notes to Editors*
*[1]* The relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights 
which establish a right of access to information linked to the right to 
freedom of expression include TASZ v. Hungary, YIHR v. Serbia, and 
Österreichische Vereinigung zur Erhaltung, Stärkung und Schaffung eines 
wirtschaftlich gesunden land- und forstwirt- schaftlichen Grundbesitzes 
v. Austria.
*[2]* FragDenStaat.de is a German web platform that helps citizens 
exercise their right to access public information, much like 
AsktheEU.org <http://www.asktheeu.org> at the EU, Tuderechoasaber.es 
<http://www.tuderechoasaber.es> in Spain and WhatDoTheyKnow.com 
<http://www.whatdotheyknow.com> in the UK. In 2012, more than a third of 
access to information requests made in Germany ran through the German 
website.
*[3]* European countries which have a constitutional protection of the 
right of access to information include Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, 
Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, Serbia, and others in Europe and globally. 
Jurisprudence in France has confirmed that this is a constitutional 
right. At the European Union level, there is a fundamental right of 
access to EU documents protected in the EU Treaties.



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