TRAINING ON HUMAN RIGHTS FOR YOUTH MEMBERS OF EUROPEAN ORGANIZATIONS http://humanrightsforyouth.org/
Information as a right around the world Recognizing knowledge as a right in the modern society was first put in action by Sweden in 1766 when it incorporated “the right to information” with the freedom of press. It was regarded as a pioneering legislation ensuring public access to information or records held by government bodies. Nearly two and a half centuries later, over seventy other countries around the world have implemented some form of freedom of information legislation into their national and international laws, setting the rules of access to information or records held by government bodies. Among countries that have established citizens’ right to information are Albania, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, European Union, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Latvia, Macedonia, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States or Zimbabwe. Besides these, many more countries are in the process of legally recognizing citizens’ right to information.
Subjects taking part in the right to information Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights talks about “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds”. It is arguable that freedom to receive information prevents public authorities from interrupting the flow of information to individuals and that freedom to impart information applies to communications of the individuals. It would thus make sense to interpret the inclusion of freedom to seek information, particularly in conjunction with the right to receive it, as placing an obligation on the government to provide access to the information it holds. Even if the right to information is everyone’s right, in some cases it acquires an important relevance. This refers to professionals or for-profit companies who deal with handling information. There are three kinds of subjects taking part into this process: • Universal subject - The public • Qualified subject - Professionals • Organized subject - Companies The relationships between them are sometimes complicated. It is said that each of them represents one of the three faculties: receive (universal), seek (qualified) and impart (organized). The universal subject Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: “Everyone has the right to the freedom of expression”. Nowadays this universal character has a series of restrictions because of the international oligopoly in which we live. It is clear that access to media requires economic power and some preparation to develop it.
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