On June 9, 2023, the Parliament adopted in the final reading the new Law on access to information of public interest. The law will enter into force six months from the day of publication in the Official Gazette and will replace the current law. The current legislation has regulated the procedure for accessing information held by entities in the public service for almost 23 years.
The process: after criticism, final version of law incorporates many proposals from civil society and media
The drafting process began in September 2022 and underwent its first round of consultations from January to March 2023. However, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) rejected a majority of the proposals put forth by civil society organisations. Many CSOs expressed their discontent with the consultation process organised by the MoJ. They assessed it to be limited and sporadic, the draft being promoted in a hurry, without taking into account the key recommendations of civil society representatives.
The Parliament voted the law in first reading on May 11, 2023, in the version proposed by MoJ. Later, the Parliament submitted the draft to a consultation process on the platform of the Committee on Legal Affairs, Appointments and Immunities, within a joint working group comprising experts from civil society as well as parliamentarians. The group took part in four meetings where the improvement proposals were discussed and analysed point by point. The parliamentary platform was receptive to CSO and media proposals and many proposals were accepted in the final version of the law.
What changes does the new law bring?
- More information providers - the list of entities obliged to provide information of public interest has been extended to include political parties, professional associations in the justice sector, energy companies, legal entities under private law that provide public services, etc. The current law divides information providers into two generic categories: (1) public authorities and institutions on the one hand, and (2) natural and legal persons who, based on the law or contracts with the state, manage public services.
- Shorter deadlines for providing the information – The providers will need to give the information within 10 calendar days, with the possibility to extend the deadline by another 7 calendar days. Requests from media representatives must be resolved within 5 working days with the possibility of extension for another 5 calendar days. The current law provides a term of 15 working days with the possibility of extension for another 5 working days, if the volume of requested information is very large or when additional consultations are necessary to satisfy the request.
- Proactive publication - Authorities will be obliged to publish a range of information before it is requested by anyone, namely data regarding the budget and management of the authority, the annual report, public procurement, business trips, the conduct of the decision-making process, etc.
- Data on disciplinary sanctions, studies or remuneration of civil servants will be public - providers often invoke the protection of personal data to hide data on state employees from the public eye. The new law expressly prohibits limiting access to a range of information related to professional activity of public officials, such as name and surname, position, education, professional experience, remuneration, conflicts of interest and outstanding disciplinary sanctions of state employees.
- Signature on submitted requests is no longer mandatory – the applicants will be exempted from the obligation to sign the requests for access to information with a holographic or electronic signature on the grounds that this formality can be burdensome for some persons. Under the current law, all requests for information require a signature. According to the Administrative Code, requests submitted in an electronic document must be signed with an electronic signature.
- New sanctioning mechanism - apart from the contravention fines provided for the responsible persons within the information providers, the law also provides for other fines, which will be applied directly to the providers by the court.
New law to address existing, practical issues that restricted access to information
The old law, adopted back in 2000, included adequate minimum safeguards to uphold the constitutional right of access to information of public interest. However, over the years, CSOs and journalists have reported numerous illegal refusals by providers, delayed responses or the silence with which the authorities treat applicants' requests. In most cases, the problems stemmed from poor interpretation and enforcement of the law and not from insufficient or deficient regulations.
The problems were amplified in 2019, when information providers and the courts interpreted the law differently, as the provisions of the Administrative Code contradicted the Law on access to information. Under the new law, the provisions of the Administrative Code will only apply to the extent that they do not contravene the provisions of the law.
In line with international standards
The intention of the MOJ to reform the legal framework has created many expectations, especially among the journalistic community, for which access to information is one of the main work tools. One of the reasoning from which the authors of the new law started was the connection of the national legislation to the standards of the Council of Europe Convention on access to official documents, also called the Tromsø Convention - ratified by the Republic of Moldova in 2013 and which entered into force in early 2020.
The adoption of a new law on access to information of public interest is an action expressly drawn up in the Action Plan for the implementation of the measures proposed by the European Commission in its Opinion on the application for the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the European Union.