Lebanon’s legislature has passed a right to access to information bill.
Ghassan Moukheiber, a leading sponsor of the bill, praised it as an “important step” in the fight against corruption and a way to restore confidence between citizens and the state. Efforts to pass a law date back almost a decade.
Lebanon will be the 116th nation with an ATI regime, according to Freedominfo.org’s tally, and one of only a handful in Middle East, others being Iran, Jordan, Israel and Yemen.
In news media accounts, the bill passed on Jan. 19 is described as having wide scope, with exceptions for national security and personal information. It would require both proactive and reactive disclosure.
See summary of the provisions here (in Arabic). Read articles in Zawya (in English), The Daily Star (in English) and Orient-Le Jour (in French).
“The bill was originally initiated and drafted within a broad network the Lebanese Network for Access to Information – that was shared by the Lebanese Parliamentarians against Corruption Organization,” Moukheiber told The Daily Star. The Lebanese Transparency Association was among the entities in the network. “This process led to the drafting of a bill in 2009 that was submitted to Parliament by myself with other members of the Lebanese Parliamentarians against Corruption that has been in debate ever since. Finally, it was voted on today,” he added. “So it was process that took about eight to nine years.”
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