A United Nations official has suggested a variety of ways to extend the right information in the digital age, especially regarding corporate information.
Guy Berger, Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development at UNESCO, spoke Dec. 4 at an event in Finland to begin celebrations of the 250th year of the Swedish freedom of information law. Finland at the time was part of Sweden and the father of the act, Anders Chydenius, was Finnish.
Both countries are planning commemorations of the Freedom of The Press Act, signed Dec. 2, 1766. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) One such event will be the World Press Freedom Day conference in Helsinki on May 3 of next year.
Two Finnish organizations Dec. 4 honored UNESCO Director General Irini Bokova in Helsinki at a function held in the newly renovated Päivälehti Museum of Finland’s Helsingen Sanomat newspaper.
In a statement, Bokova said: “In times of turbulence, defending freedom of information is essential to advancing freedom of expression, to good governance and the rule of law, and vital for the exercise of all other rights and freedoms.”
Berger noted in his speech that UNESCO’s recent proclaimed Sept. 28 as International Day for Universal Access to Information and the inclusion of access to information in the UN Sustainable Development Goals package. (For background on the UNESCO proclamation see FreedomInfo.org article.)
Berger Addresses Corporate Information
Berger voiced concerns about access to “enormous non-public information holdings within the corporate sector” and suggested a new international mechanism may be needed when nondisclosure has environmental consequences.
He said, “A real challenge today is the extent to which the right to information may apply to such entities [corporations], in addition to states, and under what conditions.”
He pointed to reports that the largest coal company in the US, Peabody, and that country’s largest oil company, Exxon Mobil, had undisclosed knowledge of the negative effects of climate change. He elaborated:
The question, on the one hand, is whether these companies hid this information from the wider public and at least from their shareholders, and on the other hand whether they deliberately sponsored disinformation as an alternative. One does not even have to mention here, another case of a major corporation, this time headquartered in Germany. The distortion of information by Volkswagen about carbon emissions from its vehicles is similarly an issue of enormous public concern. It is clearly a delicate matter about whether such (alleged) information management practices by such entities can or should be regulated, and how; for instance, whether the world needs an equivalent of the International Atomic Energy Agency to be inspecting transnationals with major environmental impact. That is another debate – one very relevant to COP’s concerns not just about reaching an accord, but also ensuring that there is not cheating on commitments afterwards. But the broader point to consider here concerns information in the private sector, and who has access to it. Chydenius would surely have been the first to raise this issue today.
Algorithm Transparency?
Berger also raised questions about the degree of intellectual property protection afforded algorithms owned by Google, Facebook and others, citing several examples.
He wondered whether “in the case of national emergencies at least, we can ask if it not be appropriate for rescue services to be able to have a degree of access to the workings of the algorithms and ability to request tweaks?”
Berger said, “There may be a need for example to override the automated feed with critical information that individuals need to know at key moments.”
Transparency About Handling of Personal Data Urged
“Another new issue since Chydenius’ era is personal information privacy versus the right to access information, evident in the European Court of Justice ruling on the so-called `Right to be forgotten,’ ” Berger said. UNESCO is finalizing a study on the topic with the new UN Special Rapporteur for the right to privacy Joe Cannatacci, he reported.
Raising the issue of personal data held private sector entities, Berger said “we need to have a right to information about the matters that concern exactly what information should remain private, and how it will be protected.”
He praised some companies for publishing reports about their interactions with government requests for information take-down, user identity or surfing data and meta-data. “Yet, there is little information forthcoming about what they do themselves such as in response to requests from private users, or directly in implementation of their own policies,” according to Berger.
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