Help Ensure Access to Official Info in Europe

Access Info, a Spain-based organization dedicated to promoting and protecting access to information worldwide, is asking groups and individuals to sign on to a letter urging European officials to ensure official records remain open.

The letter to the Council of Europe focuses on gaps in what Access Info describes as "the world's first treaty to guarantee the right of access to information," the European Convention on Access to Official Documents.

The drafting committee, comprised of specialists from 15 of the 47 government members of the Council of Europe, meets for the final time Oct. 9-12 in Strasbourg. The treaty they are drafting "establishes a right to request 'official documents', which are broadly defined as all information held by public authorities, in any form," Access Info explains on its Web site.

"On the positive side, the future Convention will establish that the right to “official documents” can be exercised by all persons with no need to demonstrate a particular interest in the information requested, and at no charge for filing requests and viewing documents," the explanation continues, adding, however, there are "three major flaws" in the current draft.

The letter urges the committee to reconsider the treaty's omission of official documents held by legislative and judicial authorities; the lack of inclusion of documents "held by natural and legal persons insofar as they perform public functions"; and the need to include additional categories of information including finances and procurement "that must be published proactively."

For more information about the treaty and to sign on to the letter, visit the Access Info Web site.