Transparency in Public Administration: Free Access to Public Information. A Topical Comparative Analysis of Several Jurisdictions from Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Many expected freedom of information laws to be among the first priorities of the new governments of countries in transition after the 1989 changes, but instead there was little public pressure to adopt general sunshine laws relating to all categories of information. After adopting the laws, however, there are still many powerful forces that are working against extensive access to information – they can be static - opaque administrative practices, general inaptitude or the lack of sufficient human and material resources - or active – agents that resist openness due to private interests, or agents that use institutional scenarios to prevent public scrutiny over corruption and incompetence. The paper approaches the jurisdictions from Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Romania, emphasising aspects like: different models in regulating freedom of information regimes, obstacles in the implementation of the law, public bodies that should apply the law, timeframes, etc.