1 DECEMBER 2005
Minister wants a more liberal Wob
On December 1st the Dutch minister for Government Reform,
Mr. Alexander Pechtold, announced in parliament that in
the spring of 2006 he will propose in parliament an overdraft
of a new and more liberal Freedom of Information Act [Wob].
25 NOVEMBER 2005 The Dutch FOIA: a 25 year old toddler, by Roger
Vleugels "It was an anniversary, but it passed almost
unnoticed last May. That month the Dutch FOIA [Wet openbaarheid
van bestuur, or Wob] was 25 years old. No reason to party.
The Wob itself isn't the problem. The Dutch FOIA is an average
one. The problem is the government and the Dutch culture
with its Calvinistic streak." Read
the complete article, including a history of
the law and an analysis of its problems.
In
the exercise of their duties government bodies shall observe
the principle of transparency in accordance with rules
to be prescribed by Act of Parliament.(1)
•
Undernourished people (% of total population),
2000/03: N/A
•
Population with sustainable access to an improved
water source (%), 2002: 100
Source:
UN Development Program, Human Development Reports
Data
This
has been generally recognized as obliging government bodies
to be open and publish information but it is not considered
to provide a right to citizens to be able to demand access.
There was a debate on amending the Constitution as part
of an effort to update it to include information technology.
However, the FOI right was not included.
Transparency
has been of longstanding concern in the Netherlands. The
1795 Declaration of Rights of Man stated, "That every
one has the right to concur in requiring, from each functionary
of public administration, an account and justification on
his conduct."(2)
Freedom
of information legislation was first adopted in 1978. The
Government
Information (Public Access) Act (WOB) replaced the original
law in 1991.(3) Under the Act, any person
can demand information related to an administrative matter
if it is contained in documents held by public authorities
or companies carrying out work for a public authority. The
request can either be written or oral. The authority has
two weeks to respond. Recommendations of advisory committees
must be made public within four weeks.
Information
must be withheld if it would endanger the unity of the Crown,
damage the security of the state or if it relates to information
on companies and manufacturing processes that were provided
in confidence. Information can also be withheld "if
its importance does not outweigh" the imperatives of
international relations and the economic or financial interest
of the state. Withholding is also allowed if the release
of the information would endanger the investigation of criminal
offenses, inspections by public authorities, personal privacy
and the prevention of disproportionate advantage or disadvantage
to a natural or legal person. In documents created for internal
consultation, personal opinions shall not be disclosed except
in anonymous form when it is "in the interests of effective
democratic governance." Environmental information has
limited exemptions.
Appeals
can be made internally and then to an administrative court
which has the final decision. The courts hear an estimated
150 cases each year.
A
bill to amend the WOB to implement the requirements of the
EU Directive on the re-use and commercial exploitation of
public sector information (2003/98/EC) was approved in December
2005.
According
to experts, the WOB is only lightly used, around 1,000 requests
each year, mostly by a few newspapers.(4)
The lack of interest stems from media and NGOs' belief that
filing requests could be considered to be disruptive to
good relations with government bodies, no tradition of political
research, a lack of sanctions, broad exemptions and poor
archives. The Minister for Government Reform announced in
December 2005 that he will introduce a new more liberal
law. A draft bill for consultation is now being considered.(5)
The
Archives Act requires that, documents are sent to the national
and regional archives after 20 years. National security
related documents can be kept closed for 75 years.
The
Criminal Code prohibits the disclosure of state secrets.
Punishment can be up to 15 years imprisonment.(8)
Reporter Peter R. de Vries was investigated in December
2005 after he published secret information that had been
on a disk lost by an official that showed that the intelligence
service was monitoring the private life of murdered politician
Pim Fortuyn. The prosecutor's office announced in February
2006 that there were dropping the investigation.(9)
The
Netherlands signed the Aarhus Convention in June 1998 and
accepted it in December 2004. Access to environmental information
is under the WOB. The WOB was amended in July 2005 to implement
the convention and the 2003 EU Directive.(10)
6
JANUARY 2004
Airline Blacklist Remains Secret The
BBC reports on airlines that have
poor safety records, so much so that they have been banned
in at least one country, but are having their identities
kept secret.
Flash
Airlines for example, whose plane crashed in Egypt on January
3, 2004, was only one of six airlines whose safety standards
were considered so poor they were banned or restricted in
a European country in 2002.
But
passengers boarded the doomed jet unaware that it had failed
a Swiss safety test and remained banned from Swiss airspace.
And future passengers who want to know the names of the
five other banned airlines face a seemingly impossible task,
even though these names are not officially secret.
The
information is held on a vast database in France and the
Netherlands. National governments know, but passengers and
- crucially - even tour operators can find out only if a
government decides to reveal the information. Protocol is
for the countries which imposed the actions to talk about
it. "The public has no way of knowing which airlines
they are," says David Learmount, of Flight International
Magazine. "Yes they should know, but who should tell
them?" The information is not classified as confidential
- but it is not obtainable, it seems.
3.
Act
of 31 October 1991, containing regulations governing
public access to government information. It replaced the
Act on Public Access to Information of 9 November 1978.
4.
Roger Vleugels, The Dutch FOIA, a 25 year old toddler,
December 2005.
"The
law requires the executive branch to provide full
information on administrative matters unless publication
of such information runs counter to the public
interest. Exceptions are clearly defined, and
administrative courts review any dispute."
1)
Voice and Accountability: 1.49
2) Political Instability and Violence: 1.15
3) Government Effectiveness: 2.00
4) Regulatory Burden: 1.67
5) Rule of Law: 1.78
6) Control of Corruption: 2.08
