Freedom of information

• 1. Foundations And Human Rights

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  Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, sets out the right to receive and impart information and ideas. This declaration established that everyone has the freedom to hold opinions without interference. It further states that this right includes the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information through any media regardless of frontiers. The United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted in 1966, referred first to holding opinions without interference. Then it expanded to include the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds. UNESCO defines access to information as encompassing scientific, indigenous, and traditional knowledge. They also emphasize building open knowledge resources including open Internet and open standards. Their mandate includes preserving digital heritage and respecting cultural and linguistic diversity. This framework supports quality education for all including lifelong learning and e-learning. It promotes the diffusion of new media and information literacy skills. Social inclusion online is a key goal addressing inequalities based on skills, education, gender, age, race, ethnicity, and accessibility by those with disabilities. The government of the United Kingdom theorizes freedom of information as an extension of freedom of speech. They view it as a fundamental human right recognized in international law. The international and United States Pirate Party have established political platforms largely based on these issues.

• 2. The Digital Divide Barriers

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  Global internet access reached just over 5.35 billion users in 2024 amounting to about 66 per cent of the world's population. Yet the digital divide continues to exclude over half of the world's population particularly women and girls. This exclusion is especially severe in Africa and the least developed countries as well as several Small Island Developing States. Individuals with disabilities can be either advantaged or further disadvantaged by technology design. The Pew Internet report shows that 54% of households with a person who has a disability have home internet access compared to 81% of households without such a person. Racial disparities persist even when income levels are considered. Data from Fress Press indicates that 81% of Whites and 83% of Asians have home internet access. In contrast only 70% of Hispanics and 68% of Blacks possess similar access. Even among low-income groups structural barriers remain evident. Only 58% of low income Whites have home internet access while 51% of Hispanics and 50% of Blacks do not. Facebook internal documents collected by ProPublica revealed slides identifying three groups each containing female drivers, black children, or white men. When asked which subset group was protected the correct answer listed was white men. Minority group language is negatively impacted by automated tools due to human bias deciding what constitutes hate speech. Aboriginal memes on a Facebook page were posted with racially abusive content yet the platform allowed it to remain under controversial humor classification. An African American woman's account was suspended for reporting racist comments she received while those responsible were not suspended. Online disability hate crimes increased by 33% within the past year across the UK according to Leonard Cheshire.org. Model Katie Price launched a campaign after her son became the target of online abuse attributed to his disability.

• 3. Censorship And State Control

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  Reporters without Borders maintains an internet enemy list including Cuba Iran Maldives Myanmar Burma North Korea Syria Tunisia Uzbekistan and Vietnam. These states engage in pervasive internet censorship. The Great Firewall of China blocks content by preventing IP addresses from being routed through standard firewall and proxy servers at Internet gateways. It also selectively engages in DNS poisoning when particular sites are requested. More than sixty Internet regulations have been made by the People's Republic of China government. Censorship systems are vigorously implemented by provincial branches of state-owned ISPs business companies and organizations. In 2010 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that humanity should stand for a single internet where all has equal access to knowledge and ideas. She noted how information networks help people discover new facts even in authoritarian countries. President Barack Obama stated that societies become stronger as information flows more freely. States have increasingly adopted laws legalizing monitoring of communication justifying these practices with national interest defense. New anti-terrorism laws in parts of Europe enable greater government surveillance and intelligence authority access to citizens data. The European Court of Justice found the Safe Harbour Agreement invalid in 2015 because it did not offer sufficient protections for European citizens data. This agreement allowed private companies to legally transmit personal data from European subscribers to the US. The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield replaced it in 2016 including safeguards on United States government access to data. Hacktivismo founded in 1999 argues that access to information is a basic human right. Their declaration calls upon the hacker community to study ways to circumvent state sponsored censorship. They also call for implementing technologies to challenge information rights violations.

• 4. Privacy Versus Transparency

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  The increasing reliance on digital media has increased possibilities for states and private sector companies to track individuals behaviors opinions and networks. In 2015 the United Nations Human Rights Council established a Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy. By 2017 the Council emphasized that unlawful or arbitrary surveillance violates the right to privacy. Such acts can interfere with other human rights including freedom of expression. Recital 153 of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation states Member State law should reconcile rules governing freedom of expression with protection of personal data. The regulation allows derogations or exemptions if necessary to balance these rights. The European Court of Justice ruled in the Google Spain case allowing people to claim a right to be forgotten. This decision enabled de-listing in a much-debated approach to balancing privacy free expression and transparency. Following this ruling the right to be forgotten has been recognized in many countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. Only four States have secured in national legislation a general right to encryption as of recent reports. Thirty-one nations have enacted laws granting law enforcement agencies power to intercept or decrypt encrypted communications. WhatsApp implemented full end-to-end encryption in its messenger service since 2010 to increase user protection. Apple contested a law enforcement warrant to unlock an iPhone used by perpetrators of a terror attack. Mass surveillance technologies mandatory data retention policies and disclosure of digital activities pose new risks for journalism sources. Without understanding how to shield digital communications journalists and sources can unwittingly reveal identifying information.

• 5. Legislative Frameworks And Laws

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  In June 2006 nearly 70 countries had freedom of information legislation applying to government bodies and certain private bodies. In 19 of these countries the legislation also applied to private bodies. Access to information is increasingly recognized as a prerequisite for transparency and accountability of governments. It facilitates consumers ability to make informed choices and safeguards citizens against mismanagement and corruption. The Global Right to Information Rating program assesses the strength of legal frameworks globally. Top scoring countries tend to have younger laws regardless of geographic location. Of 109 countries with available implementation data 43 per cent do not sufficiently provide public outreach. Another 43 per cent have overly-wide definitions of exceptions to disclosure running counter to transparency aims. Officials are often unfamiliar with transparency norms or unwilling to recognize them in practice. Journalists frequently fail to use these laws effectively due to official failure to respond or extensive delays. Heavily redacted documents and arbitrarily steep fees further hinder usage. In 2009 the data.gov portal launched in the United States collecting most government open data. A wave of government data opening followed around the world. The Open Government Partnership established in 2011 includes some 70 countries issuing National Action Plans. These plans contain strong open data commitments designed to foster greater transparency and generate economic growth. The Open Data Charter founded in 2015 has been adopted by 17 national governments half from Latin America and the Caribbean. The 2017 Open Data Barometer shows that while 79 out of 115 surveyed countries have open government data portals policies are often missing. Most released datasets are incomplete out of date low quality and fragmented. Private bodies covered under freedom of information legislation vary significantly across nations like Angola Armenia Peru Czech Republic and South Africa.

• 6. Media Evolution And Access

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  The internet registered the highest growth in users supported by massive infrastructure investments and significant mobile uptake. By the end of 2017 an estimated 48 per cent of individuals regularly connect to the internet up from 34 per cent in 2012. Annual growth rates slowed to five per cent in 2017 dropping from a ten per cent rate in 2012. Unique mobile cellular subscriptions increased from 3.89 billion in 2012 to 4.83 billion in 2016 representing two-thirds of the world population. More than half of these subscriptions were located in Asia and the Pacific. Almost 60 per cent of the world's population had access to a 4G broadband cellular network as of 2016. Zero-rating allows free connectivity to specific content but creates a two-tiered internet according to critics. Mozilla and Orange tested equal rating experiments preventing prioritization of one type of content. Colombia offered as many as 30 pre-paid and 34 post-paid plans while other regions had fewer choices. Television primacy is challenged by the internet in Western Europe and North America. In Africa television gains greater audience share than radio which historically was the most widely accessed platform. Age profoundly determines the balance between media sources. Fifty-one percent of adults aged 55 and older consider television their main news source compared to only 24 percent of respondents aged 18 to 24. Online media chosen by 64 percent of users between 18 and 24 but only by 28 percent of users 55 and older. Netflix expanded its global service to 130 new countries in January 2016 surpassing 100 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2017. Forty-seven percent of Netflix users are based outside the United States where the company began in 1997. Print newspaper circulation fell in almost all regions except Asia and the Pacific between 2012 and 2016.