Access to Information Programme | Information newsletter issue 11(23) November 2005

22 % Awareness Of APIA In Bulgaria Is a Very Concrete Accomplishment
Daniel Simons, Article 19

Daniel Simons is a legal officer with Article 19, an international organization active in the defence and promotion of freedom of expression and freedom of information worldwide. The main programs of Article 19 are mainly related to raising awareness and the implementation of FOI laws.

In what way does Article 19 participate in the international freedom of information development?
We have regional programs and a law program. The regional programs are mainly active with raising awareness and the implementation of laws. When I say raising awareness, I mean training public officials what is Freedom of Information. And the law program does the technical work of advising on how to draft legislation. Maybe, advising on litigation also.
We have played an important role in the development of Freedom of Information Laws in South Eastern Europe. I think that we have some kind of involvement with all of the laws though I am not hundred percent sure about that. We have a publication on principles on access to information legislation, which is one of the leading standards-setting documents on freedom of information.

We have also developed a model law just as an inspiration for many of the laws that have been adopted.

How do you involve in the development and adoption of FOI laws I different parts in the world?
Very often the process started with us doing a training for either public officials or the civil society on freedom of information. Then a law is usually drafted and submitted to us for comments. I can’t tell exactly which countries we have had involvement in. I only know that I went to Macedonia and Montenegro and commented their almost completed law, which is about to be submitted to parliament. Then I wrote an analysis and they did some final changes, though not too many unfortunately.

What were your impressions about the implementation of FOI legislation in the region after you have heard the litigation experience of the FOI organizations from Central and Eastern Europe?
I think it is still very limited because many of these laws are at most 10-12 years, 5 in your case, old so here I was surprised to hear that the awareness of the law in Bulgaria is 22 %. That is a very concrete accomplishment, I suppose of your organization, AIP. I think it’s very high. If you look at countries, which have had a law for 25 years like the Netherlands, I think the awareness is probably more than 22 % but it’s still far from universal. And if you did a poll in most of the Western European countries, you couldn’t come up with a figure more than about 33% or so. That is why we have people like Roger Vleugels in the Netherlands to test the law and raise public awareness about the importance if its implementation.

What is your evaluation of the outcomes after the two days of intensive discussion about FOI Litigation and future perspectives?
The conference was fantastically organized and I am glad I was able to meet the community. It is difficult to identify specific outcomes. I think we got a very good picture of what is going on in different countries because everyone had an opportunity to describe their experience. So, I think one concrete outcome is that if we face a problem, we have an idea of who we might address for inspiration how this problem could be solved, what kind of precedent we might cite from other countries, which is favorable. For me, the concrete outcome was that I now have an idea of which organizations there are, what sort of work they are doing. So, it makes it easier to coordinate with other people. We discussed very much how to set up a system of exchanging information and a lot of ideas are now on the table that are going to be developed during the next years. That is definitely very positive, I think.

From what you have heard during these two days, do you think the FOI community is getting bigger and stronger?
I didn’t really have a very clear picture of the FOIA community in Eastern Europe and I’ve been really impressed how strong it is. It seems to be a very active NGO in each of the country, which we don’t have in Western Europe. I think the community is getting stronger, especially outside Europe. There are more and more countries adopting FOI Laws. Often, from countries that we didn’t even know were in the process of developing their law, we get an e-mail saying that they have adopted FOIA. What I am very excited about is that Jordan is going to adopt the law. And there is no other Arab country. At least, in the Middle East, Jordan will be the first one with a FOI law.