A draft access to information law in Cyprus, if adopted, would be one of the worst in the world, according to an analysis by Access Info Europe.
The group announced that its analysis of the draft text using the Right to Information Rating indicators found that Cyprus would come in at position 97 of 102 countries globally, “scoring a dismal 57 of 150 points.”
Access Info Europe observed that Cyprus “would not be able to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents.”
In a submission sent to the Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou, the pro-transparency organization recommended significant amendments to the draft law. The suggestions include “recognising the fundamental nature of the right, including all public bodies in the law, reducing the number of exceptions, and removing other obstacles such as the requirement to provide ID when requesting information.”
“In its current state, the Cypriot government will adopt an embarrassingly weak law,” stated Andreas Pavlou, Access Info Europe.
“It is unacceptable for the law to exclude from the outset important public institutions such as the President, Cabinet, Parliament, and Judiciary, as well as include 22 exceptions to access,” Pavlou added.
The proposed law contains 22 exceptions to access to information, “many of which are vague and/or broad, and nine of which are absolute despite international standards requiring that all exceptions are subject to a harm test and public interest test,” according to the Madrid-based group.
“Among its few positive elements the draft law includes limited provisions for proactive publication, and a broad definition of ‘information.’ “ according to the analysis. .
A 2011 report by Access Info and Cypriot partners found that over 70 percent of requests sent to public bodies in the Republic of Cyprus result in administrative silence, whilst only 7 percent of answers contained the information requested.
Cyprus is one of only two countries in Europe without an access to information law, the other being Luxembourg, which has a draft law in the Parliament.
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