Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both. -- James Madison
In Bavaria, the "right to information" was introduced 6 years ago for "legitimate interests".which is no improvment compared to the situatioon before, The regulation of a general right to information is merely a codification of the ... right to a decision free of discretionary errors that is already in force before..
I would have been interested in how many applications are made per year and how many are rejected when I attended the online panel discussion "Freedom of information in Bavaria: Dare to be more transparent?" saw. (Later the government told that there are no statistics available.)
Freedom of information was invented in Sweden more than 250 years ago. One speaks of open public administration. Norway received such a law (Act relating to the right of access to documents held by public authorities) in 1970 and handles around 300,000 applications per year ("Antall innsynskrav i eInnsyn" = number of requests for inspection).
It works like this::
About 58 million entries (documents) are described on the Internet: https://einnsyn.no/sok
The search term «Bayern» yields 575 hits: https://einnsyn.no/sok?f=f5685cb9-e53a-4ad1-b355-f321934b3f8e
The search term Bavaria inherits 1433 hits: https://einnsyn.no/sok?f=165e1315-6814-4d6a-84c6-6f63d57d41df
The user can then click on "Order" and enter his e-post address in "Chart" to carry out the order.
For simple inquiries, the response time is 1 to 3 days. A one week delay will be considered a denial and will give rise to legal action.
It's free. You can see why so many applications can be dealt with free of charge: The administration receives the document number. This makes editing easier.
Dear Ms. Guttenberger: Are you still satisfied with the right to information in Bavaria?
Norway has a population of around 5 million, while Bavaria would have 600,000 applications for the same level.
I understood you to mean that you could be contacted:
This is my contribution: To help Bavaria to become respectable, I sued the UN Human Rights Committee: https://www.law-democracy.org/live/case-against-germany-no-right-to-information-law -in-bavaria-breaches-right-to-freedom-of-expression /
11 December 2021,
Regards
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Walter Keim
Netizen:
http://walter.keim.googlepages.com
Case Keim Against Germany: No Right to Information Law in
Bavaria:
https://t.co/krZaa1Jyok
http://wkeim.bplaced.net/files/enforce_access_to_information.html
PS: Article 5, Paragraph 1, Clause 1 of the Basic Law guarantees the fundamental right to freedom of information. According to this, everyone has the right to learn freely from generally accessible sources ...
With the enactment of Art. 36 BayDSG (Data protection law), the Bavarian legislature made the files and documents of Bavarian public authorities - with the exception of those in Art. 36 Para. 4 Clause 1 BayDSG mentioned - as generally accessible sources within the meaning of Article 5, Paragraph 1, Sentence 1 of the Basic Law.
A source is generally accessible if it is suitable and determined to the general public, i.e. a group of people that cannot be individually determined, information procure. The general right to information is a everyone's right. (See: The general right to information in the Bavarian Data Protection Act https://www.datenschutz-bayern.de/3/auskunftsrecht.pdf)
The fundamental right to freedom of information Article 5, Paragraph 1, Clause 1 of the Basic Law is a human right in accordance with Article 19 of the Civil Covenant on Freedom of Expression and Information. More than 130 statutes ensure freedom of information by law. Thus, according to Art. 25 Basic Law, freedom of information is a general rule of international law and part of federal law.
.
Dark green Access to informationn law. Yellow Law in
prepsration.
FOIA= Freedom of Information Act
(Informationsfreiheitsgesetz)
