Freedom of Information: Majority Demands More Transparency from Authorities

Twenty years after the Freedom of Information Act (IFG) came into force at the federal level, a majority of the population in Germany is demanding more transparency from state authorities. This is according to the first nationwide representative survey on freedom of information, which the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI), Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider, published on Monday. According to the survey, 96 percent of the 2500 respondents expect transparent administrative action. However, the study shows that 60 percent find administrative work hardly or not at all comprehensible.

Although the law allows citizens to access official documents without special justification, actual use has so far been restrained. According to the study conducted by the opinion research institute INFO, only around ten percent of respondents have submitted a corresponding request. However, most of these requests were successful: 54 percent of applicants received full access to the desired information, and a further 28 percent were granted partial access by the authorities. Only five percent of the submitted requests were clearly rejected by the offices.

Transparency Against Disinformation

“In times of targeted disinformation, transparency is the most effective countermeasure,” explained Specht-Riemenschneider. To further strengthen information rights, the BfDI derives concrete recommendations for action from the survey results. A central demand is directed at administrations to proactively publish documents of public interest more frequently, which 83 percent of the survey participants support. Furthermore, authorities must make access routes significantly easier for information seekers. The BfDI also calls for effective enforcement powers for supervisory bodies to be able to assert the right to information more easily in case of conflict.

The BfDI also strongly warned against broadly undermining access rights under the pretext of internal or national security. Although the law already allows for justified exceptions, for example for police hazard prevention or the protection of intelligence services, blanket secrecy removes state action from control. According to the study, this breeds mistrust and plays into the hands of anti-democratic groups.

Debate on Information Rights

The debate about the exact design and scope of freedom of information has accompanied politics and civil society since the first corresponding state laws in the late 1990s. The current BfDI Specht-Riemenschneider also regularly calls for the IFG to be made better known and more effective as a control tool. The new format “BfDI-Datenbarometer” is intended to support this discussion in the future with regular, evidence-based analyses.

In recent times, the right to freedom of information has repeatedly been up for debate. Protests from civil society during the coalition negotiations of the black-red federal government a year ago ensured that the coalition refrained from abolition plans. At the state level, however, plans are progressing to exempt various areas from information obligations. Lower Saxony and Bavaria are currently the only states entirely without a freedom of information act.

(mack)