France
Kamis, 24 Januari 2008
There are also mandatory exemptions for documents that would harm the secrecy of the proceedings of the government and proper authorities coming under the executive power in French; national defense secrecy; the conduct of France's foreign policy; the State's security, public safety and security of individuals; the currency and public credit; the proper conduct of proceedings begun before jurisdictions or of operations preliminary to such proceedings, unless authorization is given by the authority concerned; actions by the proper services to detect tax and customs offences; or secrets protected by the law. Documents that would harm personal privacy, trade or manufacturing secrets, pass a value judgment on an individual, or show behavior of an individual can only be given to the person principally involved. An ordinance was adopted in June 2005 to amend the 1978 law to implement the EU Directive on the re-use and commercial exploitation of public sector information (2003/98/EC).(4) It also made a number of other changes to the law including setting out the structure and composition of the Commission, requiring bodies to appoint a responsible person, and allowing access in electronic form. The Commission d'accèss aux documents administratifs (CADA) is charged with oversight.(5) It can mediate disputes and issue recommendations but its decisions are not binding in French. There is no internal appeals under the law and all appeals are heard first by the CADA. It handled over 5,400 requests in 2004, up nearly 10 percent from the previous few years.(6) On average, around 50 percent of its recommendations are for the body to release the information that it is withholding (47.9 percent in 2004) and 10 percent against the requestor. In twenty percent of cases, the document is given before the CADA makes its decision. Privacy is listed as the most significant reason for upholding denials (around 50 percent of the time) followed by preparatory documents. The bodies follow the advice around 70 percent of the time and refuse to follow the advice in less than French secrets.
