The importance of the right to information or the right to know is an increasingly constant refrain in the mouths of development practitioners, civil society, academics, the media and governments. What is this right, is it really a right and how have governments sought to give effect to it? These are some of the questions this book seeks to address, providing an accessible account of the law and practice regarding freedom of information, and an analysis of what is working and why.

There has been a veritable revolution in recent years in terms of the right to information, commonly understood as the right to access information held by public bodies. Whereas in 1990 only 13 countries had adopted national right to information laws, upwards of 70 such laws have now been adopted globally, and they are under active consideration in another 20-30 countries.

In 1990, no inter-governmental organisation had recognised the right to information, now all of the multilateral development banks and a number of other international financial institutions have adopted information disclosure policies. In 1990, the right to information was seen predominantly as an administrative governance reform whereas today it is increasingly being seen as a fundamental human right.

Even the terminology is starting to change. The term ‘freedom of information’ has historically been common usage and this is refl ected in the title of this book, retained from the fi rst edition. However, the term ‘right to information’ is now increasingly being used not only by activists, but also by officials. It is, for example, reflected the title of title of the 2005 India law granting access to information held by public bodies. This version of the book, while retaining the original title, consistently refers to the right to information rather than freedom of information.

Since the first edition of this book was published in 2003, these changes, which were already well underway, have become more profound and widespread. The adoption of the first right to information law by a country in the Middle East, namely by Jordan in 2007, so that the trend now extends to every commonly referenced geographic region of the world, is emblematic of this.

Very significant developments in terms of recognition of access to information as a fundamental human right have also occurred since the first edition was published. These include the fi rst decision by an international court recognising the right to information as an aspect of the general right to freedom of expression, along with decisions by superior courts along the same lines, and more and more emphatic statements by authoritative international bodies and offi cials about the status of this right. ...

Download Freedom of Information: A Comparative Legal Survey

PDF format, 2.5MB, 167Pages.

By Toby Mendel
Second Edition
Revised and Updated
UNESCO: Paris, 2008

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Toby Mendel is the Law Programme Director with ARTICLE 19, Global Campaign for Free Expression, a leading international human rights NGO based in London, a position he has held for some ten years. In that capacity, he has worked extensively on freedom of expression and right to information issues in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, running training seminars, critiquing laws, taking cases to both national and international bodies, advising NGOs and governments, and even working with offi cials to prepare draft right to information laws.

In addition to his work with ARTICLE 19, he has provided expertise on these issues to a wide range of actors including the World Bank, various UN and other intergovernmental bodies, and numerous NGOs. Prior to joining ARTICLE 19, Toby Mendel worked in human rights and international development, including as a senior human rights consultant with Oxfam Canada and as a human rights policy analyst at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Toby Mendel has published widely, contributing to numerous ARTICLE 19 and other publications. He is, among other things, the author of the ARTICLE 19 publications The Public’s Right to Know: Principles on Freedom of Information Legislation and A Model Freedom of Information Law. This is the second book by Mr. Mendel published by UNESCO, the first being Public Service Broadcasting: A Comparative Legal Survey.

His published work covers a wide range of free expression issues including broadcasting, communications rights, defamation, the right to information, the rights of the child, public service broadcasting and false news. He has an honours BA in mathematics from McGill University and a fi rst class LLB (law) from Dalhousie University.

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Comment

smaller | bigger

Add Comment