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Manual On Good Administration Principles

applicants; and to review and decide on the applications for access to
information promptly, effectively and correctly; and Article 11 stipulates
that the institutions and agencies shall provide the requested information
within 15 working days. The Information and Documents Pertaining to the
State Secrets, The Information and Documents Pertaining to the Economical
Interests of the State, The Information and Documents Pertaining to the
State Intelligence, The Information and Documents Pertaining to the
Administrative Investigation, The Information or Documents Pertaining the
Judicial Investigation and Prosecution, Privacy of individuals, The Privacy of
Communication, Trade Secrets, Intellectual Property, Internal Regulations,
Internal Opinions, Information Notes and Recommendations, Requests for
Recommendation and Opinions are regulated between Articles 16 and 27.

Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Article 10 of European Convention of Human Rights, Article 19 of
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights evaluate right to
information in terms of fundamental rights and freedoms. Article 2 titled
“Access to Information” of the Resolution (77) 31 on the Protection of
the Individual in Relation to Acts of Administrative Authorities of the
Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe says that “At his request,
the person concerned is informed before administrative act is taken, by
appropriate means, of all available data relevant to that act”.
Articles 42 and 44 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European
Union regulate the right of access to documents and right to petition
respectively, which guarantees the applications to the institutions and
organisations of the European Union for information purposes.
Article 22 titled “Requests for Information” of the European Code of Good
Administrative Behaviour lays down that the official shall, when he or she
has responsibility for the matter concerned, provide members of the public
with the information that they request.

Case Studies

Case 1: In the Decision of the European Court of Human Rights no.
37374/04 dated 14/04/2019 concerning a request by the Társaság a
Szabadságjogokért/Hungary (Hungarian Civil Liberties Union - TASZ), the
Court made it clear that when public bodies implement measures that
prevent the information of the general public in the fields concerning
the general public, more careful scrutiny of the case as per Article 10 of
the European Convention of Human Rights would be carried out and that
the function of the press was not limited to the media or professional
journalists.

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