The Mongolian parliament is considering right to information legislation proposed by the Ministry of Justice.
The draft law was submitted in January 2011, and has strengths and weaknesses, according to a critique by the Centre for Democracy and Law.
CLD Executive Director Toby Mendel said: “It has a number of positive features, including a very broad regime for proactive disclosure of information. However, it also has some serious shortcomings, in particular an extremely broad regime of exceptions, which should be addressed before it is passed into law.”
The regime of exceptions “both fails to protect key confidentiality interests and renders confidential some issues that should be open,” according to Mendel who said that many exceptions are not harm based and that there is no public interest override to ensure that information of significant public interest is disclosed.
CLD also said the coverage of the proposed law is too narrow and the system of promotional measures too weak. He also objected to having sanctions for disclosing information, even if done in good faith.
Filed under: What's New