Freedom of information laws by country detail legislation that gives access by the general public to data held by national governments. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions. Also variously referred to as open records, or sunshine laws (in the United States), governments are also typically bound by a duty to publish and promote openness. In many countries there are constitutional guarantees for the right of access to information, but usually these are unused if specific support legislation does not exist.
Read more about Freedom Of Information Laws By Country: Introduction, Pending Legislation By Country
Famous quotes containing the words freedom of, freedom, information, laws and/or country:
“Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“No matter what a man does, he is not fully sane or human unless there is a spirit of freedom in him, a soul unconfined by purpose and larger than the practicable world.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“On the breasts of a barmaid in Sale
Were tattooed the prices of ale;
And on her behind
For the sake of the blind
Was the same information in Braille.”
—Anonymous.
“I flatter myself [we] have in this country extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“Every white man in this country has been raised with a false sense of power.”
—Roxanne Dunbar (1938)