[open-government] Cyprus: Draft FOI law seriously below European standards

[Andreas Pavlou]

  Cyprus: Draft FOI law seriously below European standards

/Madrid, 30 July 2015/ – Access Info Europe 
<http://www.access-info.org/> has urged the government of Cyprus to 
greatly improve its draft access to information law in order to meet 
basic international transparency standards.

An analysis of the draft text using the Right to Information Rating 
<http://www.rti-rating.org/> indicators found that Cyprus would come in 
at position 97 of 102 countries globally, scoring a dismal 57 of 150 
points. It would not be able to sign and ratify the Council of Europe 
Convention on Access to Official Documents 
<http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=205&CL=ENG>.

In a submission 
<http://www.access-info.org/wp-content/uploads/AIE_Comments_Draft_Cyprus_RTILaw.docx> 
sent to Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou, the pro-transparency 
organisation recommended significant amendments to the draft law such as 
recognising the fundamental nature of the right, including all public 
bodies in the law, reducing the number of exceptions, and removing other 
obstacles such as the requirement to provide ID when requesting information.

“/In its current state, the Cypriot government will adopt an 
embarrassingly weak law,/” stated Andreas Pavlou, Campaigner at Access 
Info Europe.

“/It is unacceptable for the law to exclude from the outset important 
public institutions such as the President, Cabinet, Parliament, and 
Judiciary, as well as include 22 exceptions to access,/” Pavlou added.

The proposed law contains 22 exceptions to access to information, many 
of which are vague and/or broad, and nine of which are absolute despite 
international standards requiring that all exceptions are subject to a 
harm test and public interest test.

Among its few positive elements the draft law includes limited 
provisions for proactive publication, and a broad definition of 
‘information’.

A 2011 report by Access Info and Cypriot partners 
<http://www.access-info.org/pub-and-toolkits/14840> found that over 70% 
of requests sent to public bodies in the Republic of Cyprus result in 
administrative silence, whilst only 7% of answers contained the 
information requested. Recommendations included the adoption of access 
to information legislation in the Republic of Cyprus.

Currently, Cyprus is one of only two countries in Europe without an 
access to information law, the other being Luxembourg, which has a draft 
law in the Parliament.

Read the submission in more detail here 
<http://www.access-info.org/wp-content/uploads/AIE_Comments_Draft_Cyprus_RTILaw.docx>.


      For more information, please contact:

*Andreas Pavlou | *Access Info Europe
andreas at access-info.org <mailto:andreas at access-info.org> +34 913 656 558


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