Right to Know: Freedom of Information

State Secrecy and Freedom of Information
Globe International has started a project titled "State Secrecy and Freedom of Information"
Globe International has started a project titled "State Secrecy and Freedom of Information" under the funding of the US Embassy, Ulaanbaatar since July 1, 2006. The project aimed to encourage the state secrecy legislation reform will involve a full analysis of the deficiencies of the present state secrecy legislation in comparison with the similar laws of other countries in transition and a new draft of the state secrecy law that is consistent with the international standards of freedom of information. During 6 months of the project period Globe International has formed 2 teams of lawyers to work on the comparative legal analysis and drafting a new state secrecy law.
The project also has formed a team of researchers to conduct the case studies on the current situation of the citizen’s access to information hold by the public institutions.
        Dr. Gergey Radchenko is working as consultant. E-mail: sergey@radchenko.net

The results of the project will be:
• Full report is available and will serve as main reference document for legal reform on the state secrecy legislation
• The recommendations for further amendments to the existing Mongolian laws affecting the state secrecy are available for promoting the most favourable legal environment for transparent and open governance
• Reports of the instigated case studies are available for proving the need for legal reform
• Draft law is available and consistent with the international freedom of expression standards
• Availability of the professional team of lawyers and civil society experts to specialize on the state secrecy issues in perspective of openness and freedom of information in the future activities thus providing the continued public education of the public and lagislators.

Project Justification
The Mongolian government often pledges to transparency and openness. The Government has promised to support “an open and transparent society, which encourages the free creation, pursuit and flow of information” in Ulaanbaatar Declaration- the final document of 2003 International Conference on New and Restored Democracies. The government of Mongolia has the Action Plan of the Mongolian government for 2004-2008, which contains the same commitment to provide the citizens with rights to access information. Freedom of information legislation is also a part of the Government programs such as Good Governance for Human Security, National Anti-corruption Program and National Human Rights Program.
Unfortunately, the existing restrictions on access to government records in Mongolia as to make it possible for virtually anything to be classified as “secret” and hidden from the public view for an indefinite period contradict the spirit of the Mongolian government’s commitment to openness and transparency. Unnecessary secrecy breeds irresponsibility on the part of government officials.

As it mentioned before in 2002 Globe International in cooperation with Article 19, the London based international organization produced a report titled " Mongolia in Transition: Legal Analysis on the Mongolian legislation Affecting Freedoms of Expression and Information". That time Globe International lawyers reviewed 232 Mongolia laws valid until 2001 and exposed that 91 laws contain the provisions related to freedoms of expression, information and media. Along with the other conclusions, the report noted: " A key problem in Mongolia is the lack of openness of public bodies". Chapter 7 of the report devoted to freedom of information and state secrecy legislation. In March 2006 Globe International lawyers completed a review of the current laws Mongolia, but it is not a full analysis and no report has been officially produced by now.

Globe International has played a key role on passage of the Law on The Public Radio and TV in January 2005 and we are still continuing our works on PSB development by consultancy, training and educational publications.
Mongolian law protects state secrets in a general law on State Secrets and Law on List of State Secrets.
According to Globe International and Article 19 findings the following problems preliminarily occurred in the current state secrecy legislation.

• Scope of the Law on State Secrets and the Law on List of State Secrets is too broad. Almost anything can be classified as “state secret”
• The classification periods are very long (up to 60 years for example) and the items protected for indefinite period is too many (11 items out of 58 protected)
• The Law on State Secrets overlaps the Law on List of State Secrets
• The Criminal Law provides up to 8 years of imprisonment for disclosing state secrets which are not consistent with the Johannesburg Principles: National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information. Harsh penalties afford the authorities in censoring the media and journalists.
• Too many laws such as Law on National Security, Law on Foreign Trade Arbitration, Law on Resolution of Petitions and Complains Issued by Citizens to Government Organizations and Officials, Law on Criminal Investigation and Charge Law on Statistics, Law on Archive Law on Geodesy and Mapping and others also protect state secrets in various ways that some of them contradict or overlap the general law .
Globe International and Article 19 report includes the following recommendations:
• The secrecy provisions of the Law on State Secrets, as well as many other laws which impose secrecy rules, should be reviewed and revised where they do not serve a legitimate secrecy interest.
• All secrecy provisions should incorporate a substantial harm test as well as a requirement that this harm is greater than public interest in having information.

So it is a crucial need for secrecy legislation reform through a full and careful analysis of the deficiencies of the Mongolian secrecy legislation in light of the similar legislation of other countries and to draft the new state secrecy legislation.
By H.Naranjargal, project leader.

Comparative survey
Instigative study
Draft lagislation on State Secrecy
Public discussions meeting
Round table State Secrecy and Freedom of Information