HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Constitution of Georgia includes two provisions specifying a right of access to information.(1)
Article 37(5). Individuals have the right to complete, objective and timely information on their working and living conditions.
Article 41(1). Every citizen has the right according to the law to know information about himself which exists in state institutions as long as they do not contain state, professional or commercial secrets, as well as with official records existing there. (2). Information existing in official papers connected with health, finances or other private matters of an individual are not available to other individuals without the prior consent of the affected individual, except in cases determined by law, when it is necessary for the state and public security, defense of health, rights and freedoms of others.
The General Administrative Code of Georgia was adopted in 1999.(2) Chapter 3 of the Code is entitled "Freedom of Information." It sets a general presumption that information kept, received or held by a public agency should be open. All public information should be entered into a public register in two days.
The law gives anyone the right to submit a written request for public information regardless of the form that information takes and without having to state the reasons for the request. The agency must respond immediately and can only delay if the information is in another locality, is of a significant volume or is at another agency. Fees can only be applied for copying costs. The law also sets rules on the access and use of personal information.
There are exemptions for information that is protected by another law or that which is considered a state, commercial, professional or personal secret. Names of some public servants participating in a decision by an official can be withheld under executive privilege but the papers can be released. The 2001 amendment prohibits the withholding of the names of political officials.
Information relating to the environment and hazards to health, structures and objectives of agencies, election results, results of audits and inspections, registers of information and any other information that is not state, commercial, or personal secrets cannot be classified. All public information created before 1990 is open. Agencies are also required to issue reports each year on the requests and their responses under the Act.
Those whose requests have been denied can appeal internally or can ask a court to nullify an agency decision. The court can review classified information to see if it has been classified properly. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2003 that legal fees can be obtained as damages when a requester wins a case. It agreed in March 2006 to hear a case brought by the Georgian Young Lawyers Association on the constitutionality of limits to access to information in the Administrative Code.
The OECD said in 2005 that "is a well-known fact that FOI Chapter is one of the best-implemented laws in Georgia, which is conditioned mostly by the special interest of diverse donors."(3) A survey of public officials by Article 19 and national partners in 2004 found that all the public officials were aware of legal obligations to release information and 92 percent were aware of the FOI provisions of the Administrative Code.(4)
However there are still problems with implementation including a lack of promotion by officials, demands for reasons for requests (declining but still common), failure of some bodies to create registries, failure of administrative appeals and sanctions, and slowness by courts.(5) The Ombudsman in 2004 found that most public authorities are not fulfilling their obligations for reports.(6) The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy conducted a national survey of public accessibility of information in 2001 and found that it was still difficult for ordinary citizens to obtain information.(7) The OECD's Anti-Corruption Network for Transition Economies recommended in January 2004 that the government:
Ensure that the access to information legislation limits discretion on the part of the public officials in charge as to whether the requested information should be disclosed, and to limit the scope of information that could be withheld. Consider steps to reach out to both, public officials as well as citizens to raise awareness about their responsibilities and rights under the access to information regulations.(8)
The Law on State Secrets sets rules on the classification of information where "disclosure or loss of which may inflict harm on the sovereignty, constitutional framework or political and economic interests of Georgia".(9) There are three categories with fixed terms for the length of classification: "Of Extraordinary Importance"- 20 years, Top Secret - 10 years and Secret - 5 years. The State Inspection for Protection of State Secrets oversees the protection of secrets and can order declassification. A 1997 decree sets the procedures on classification.(10) Information shall be declassified no later than the end of the fixed term (unless it is extended by the President) or when it is no longer necessary to be classified. All information about the construction of the President's residence was decreed to be a state secret in 2004.
The Criminal Code prohibits the disclosure of personal secrets, state secrets, and other secret information.(11)
Georgia signed the Aarhus Convention in June 1998 and ratified it in April 2000. The Law on Environmental Protection provides for a right to information about the environment and other related laws provide for public registers.(12) The Article 19 study in 2004 found that only 52 percent of the public officials surveyed know about the convention and only ten percent relied on its provisions to releasing information. An Act on State Environmental Control was adopted in June 2005.
2004 freedominfo.org Global Survey Results - Georgia
NOTES
Constitution of the Republic of Georgia.
General Administrative Code of Georgia 2002. http://www.ifes.ge/files/laws/code_general.html. For more information see IRIS, Freedom of Information Guide, 2002.
Fighting Corruption in Transition Economies: Georgia OECD 2005.
Article 19, Under Lock and Key: Freedom of Information and the Media in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, April 2005.
Transparency International Georgia, Adherence to the Anti-Corruption Recommendations of the Oecd's Anti- Corruption Network (Acn) Recommendations by the Government of Georgia - Alternative Report, December 2005.
Office of the Public Defender of Georgia, Report on conditions of Human Rights in Georgia in 2004, 2005.
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, The report on the monitoring of openness and accessibility of information, 2002.
Anti-Corruption Network for Transition Economies, Regional Anti-Corruption Action Plan for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Ukraine: Georgia - Summary of assessment and recommendations, 21 January 2004.
Law On State Secrets. No. 455. 29 October 1996. http://www.irisprojects.umd.edu/georgia/Laws/English/law_state_secrets.pdf
"The Procedure for Defining the Information as a State Secret and its Protection" Decree No. 42 of the President of Georgia of 1997, 21 January 1997.
Criminal Code. http://www.ifes.ge/files/laws/criminal_code.html
See UNECE, Environmental Performance Reviews - Georgia 2003. http://www.unece.org/env/epr/studies/georgia/
