Right to information

“ Making available to the public or provision of the information about trade secrets or business operations of a person, legal person or group will hamper the right, competitive position or just interests of such person, legal person or group, except where it is necessary for public interest, protects people's life, body, health, or is consented by the person concerned. ”

“ Every person has the right to form, express, and disseminate his or her opinions freely. (3) Every person has the right to receive information freely, to gather it from generally accessible sources, and to disseminate it. ”

“ The right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas carries with it special duties and responsibilities and may therefore be subject to certain penalties, liabilities, and restrictions, but these shall be such only as are provided by law and are necessary for the protection of national security, public order, safety, health, or morals, or of the rights, freedoms, or reputations of others. ”

“ The press, radio and television shall truthfully and objectively inform the public and publish and broadcast [those] opinions and information of organs, organizations, and citizens which are of interest to public information. The right to correction of information that has violated the rights or interests of man or organization shall be guaranteed. In order to assure the widest possible information of the public, the social community shall promote conditions conducive to the development of appropriate activities. ”

“ Every person shall have the right to disseminate information and opinions freely in any form and to inform himself from generally accessible or other legally accessible sources. The validity of these rights in service and employment relationships may only be restricted pursuant to a law. ”

“ Every person enjoys the right of access to public documents. Documents of public institutions and organs of state authorities are public, except for information that is limited by law due to privacy, business trade secrets or security classification. ”

“ That journalists have the right, as laid down by law, of access to sources of information, and to the protection of professional independence and secrecy, as well as the right to elect editorial boards ”

“ Every person shall have the right of access to all information held by the state or any of its organs at any level of government in so far as such information is required for the exercise or protection of any of his or her rights. ”

“ The right to correct published information which has damaged a right or interest of an individual, organisation or body shall be guaranteed, as shall be the right to reply to such published information. ”

“ Right to information and obligations of public authoritiesCHAPTER IIRight to information and obligations of public authorities Right to information. 3. Subject to the provisions of this Act, all citizens shall have the right to information. ”

“ The right of expression may not be restricted by indirect methods or means, such as the abuse of government or private controls over newsprint, radio broadcasting frequencies, or equipment used in the dissemination of information, or by any other means tending to impede the communication and circulation of ideas and opinions. ”

“ Provided that the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in the Official Secrets Act, 192319 of 1923. nor any of the exemptions permissible in accordance with sub-section (1) , a public authority may allow access to information, if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests. ”

“ And whereas democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed ”

“ If so, it will be a right of no utility. But much good may result from a declaration in the constitution that they possess this privilege; the people will be encouraged to come forward with their instructions, which will form a fund of useful information for the Legislature. We cannot, I apprehend, be too well informed of the true state, condition, and sentiment of our constituents, and perhaps this is the best mode in our power of obtaining information. I hope we shall never shut our ears against that information which is to be derived from the petitions and instructions of our constituents. ”

“ Every person interrogated orally, by written survey or questionnaire or by any other means with respect to such information shall be fully advised with respect to his right to fail or refuse to furnish such information. ”

“ Shall we uphold science and rationality, or shall we manufacture political disputes? Strengthen unity and cooperation, or seek isolation? Promote multilateral coordination, or pursue unilateralism? Every country has a choice to make. China believes that all countries should make the choice that is right for the interests of all humanity and the wellbeing of our future generations. Upholding the vision of a global community of shared future, we should support each other and join hands to contain the spread of the virus, and protect the health and wellbeing of people across the globe. ”

“ In general, then, the matters of which the publication should be repressed may be described as those which concern the private life, habits, acts, and relations of an individual, and have no legitimate connection with his fitness for a public office which he seeks or for which he is suggested, or for any public or quasi public position which he seeks or for which he is suggested, and have no legitimate relation to or bearing upon any act done by him in a public or quasi public capacity. ”

“ The measures employed to acquire such information should be responsive to legitimate governmental needs and must be conducted in a manner that preserves and respects established concepts of privacy and civil liberties. ”

“ As President, therefore, it is my obligation to protect not only our Government's vital information from improper disclosure, but also to protect the rights of citizens to receive the information necessary for democracy to work. ”

“ The common law secures to each individual the right of determining, ordinarily, to what extent his thoughts, sentiments, and emotions shall be communicated to others. [16] Under our system of government, he can never be compelled to express them (except when upon the witness-stand) ; and even if he has chosen to give them expression, he generally retains the power to fix the limits of the publicity which shall be given them. ”

“ The authors of the most famous of all law review articles recommended that no protection be given to privacy interests when the publication dealt with a 'matter which is of public or general interest.' Warren & Brandeis, The Right to Privacy, 4 Harv. ”

“ Provided that the personality and privacy of third parties are not violated, they shall be entitled, after weighing conflicting public interests, to access to the information available to public administration bodies concerning their concerns. ”

“ They are bound, it is true, to learn from the assessment what the limit upon their authority is, as a necessary preliminary in the exercise of their functions and the performance of their duty; but the information is for themselves alone. All the world besides must have it from the same source, and for themselves. ”

“ Upon the principle, therefore, of protecting property, it is that the common law, in cases not aided or prejudiced by statute, shelters the privacy and seclusion of thought and sentiments committed to writing, and desired by the author to remain not generally known. ”

“ What is usually referred to as the informer's privilege is in reality the Government's privilege to withhold from disclosure the identity of persons who furnish information of violations of law to officers charged with enforcement of that law. ”

“ The question, then, whether the Government ought to have control over the persons who alone can give information throughout a country, is nothing more than this, whether men interested in suppressing information necessary for the people to have, ought to be intrusted with the power, or whether they ought to have a power which their personal interest leads to the abuse of? ”

“ The principle which protects personal writings and any other productions of the intellect or of the emotions, is the right to privacy, and the law has no new principle to formulate when it extends this protection to the personal appearance, sayings, acts, and to personal relation, domestic or otherwise. ”

“ The intention is to encourage the citizen to write, and to give him a just property in the fruits of his labour; and the precautionary provisions of the law are merely to prevent others from being injured for want of proper information. ”

“ Such data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified. ”

“ Freedom of expression and freedom of information may be restricted having regard to the security of the Realm, the national supply of goods, public order and public safety, the integrity of the individual, the sanctity of private life, and the prevention and prosecution of crime. Freedom of expression may also be restricted in commercial activities. Freedom of expression and freedom of information may otherwise be restricted only where particularly important grounds so warrant. ”

“ Moreover, the State has the power to transfer property from one to another, when the common good requires this, and the common good requires that civil decisions be based on public evidence rather than on private information. ”

“ In other words, how to stimulate organs of local government to see past the ends of their own noses about the broad issues of information freedom and access. Those are the people we’re going to need ten years from now, and we’re not going to be able to educate them ten years from now. ”

“ Access to Classified Information
The national interest requires that certain information be maintained in confidence through a system of classification in order to protect our citizens, our democratic institutions, and our participation within the community of nations. The unauthorized disclosure of information classified in the national interest can cause irreparable damage to the national security and loss of human life. ”