35 civil society organizations and many international experts on freedom of expression from 25 countries today sent a letter to the French Minister of Interior Brice Hortefeux and members of the French parliament calling for the withdrawal of a proposed law allowing the authorities to carry out “behaviour checks” on members of the public and organisations wanting to reuse information obtained from public bodies.
The law, being introduced as part of reforms to the security law, is due to be discussed in the French parliament before the end of 2010. The organisations signing the letter expressed concern that the provision will severely damage the right of access to information and the freedom of expression in France, particularly as the nature of the behaviour checks is not clearly specified.
“Extending background checks to those who simply want to re-use information obtained from public bodies is unnecessary, disproportionate and intimidating. It essentially categorises the re-use of information as a potentially dangerous activity,” said Toby Mendel, director of the Centre for Law and Democracy (Canada) one of the signatories of the letter.
In many countries around the world, the trend is to make public sector information freely available for widespread re-use. This is done in recognition of the significant social and economic benefits this brings, including promoting participation in decision-making. Members of the public can add value to government-generated information, for example by developing applications or programmes that benefit society as a whole.
These benefits are clearly recognised by many leading democracies – such as Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States – who are posting large volumes of raw public data online with no preconditions on who may use it or how.
“If this provision were to be adopted, France would be closing down public access to information rather than opening it up,” concluded Benjamin Ooghe-Tabanou, co-founder of Regards Citoyens.
“The right to access and reuse public information is part of the right to freedom of expression, a right protected by the French constitution. The public should not have to undergo background checks to exercise this right,” commented Helen Darbishire, executive director of Access Info Europe.
