News | Sunday, 26 July 2009

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Freedom of Information law to be in force by 2010

Matthew Vella
Malta’s Freedom of Information Act will be brought fully into force by 2010, a spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister has told MaltaToday.
Part of the law, passed in parliament last year, is expected to be put into force by a legal notice that is to be issued shortly. But further legal notices will be issued to bring the remaining provisions of the Act in force in due course.
“It is envisaged that all the provisions of the Act will be in force during the course of 2010,” the spokesperson said.
The phased approach is being adopted with a view to ensuring that the competent authorities are adequately prepared for its proper implementation, the spokesperson added.
There are high expectations as to how the FOIA will function once it is fully in force, especially from journalists who campaigned for its introduction.
Concerns still exist over parts of the law that are feared could restrict access to information.
Already, the law is at loggerheads with a Council of Europe convention on access to official documents. The Maltese law contains a clause that prohibits anyone who has not lived in Malta for more than five years to apply for an FOIA disclosure.
It excludes non-Maltese residents, foreign journalists, asylum seekers and other people who have not lived on the island for five years from making freedom of information requests.
The highly discriminatory clause is at odds with the spirit of the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents. Article 2 of the Convention states that each state party will guarantee the right of “everyone, without discrimination on any ground, to have access, on request, to official documents held by public authorities.”
Malta’s law has yet to be enacted by legal notice, but once the Council of Europe’s Convention is put into force a group of European specialists will review Malta’s Freedom of Information Act.
The Convention will be in force once it is ratified (transposed into law) by 10 member states of the Council of Europe. Twelve member states have so far signed the Convention: Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden and the FYR Macedonia.

Malta’s FOIA
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2009/06/28/t8.html

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