The draft law on access to information of public interest was adopted, during the plenary session on Friday, June 9, with the vote of the parliamentary majority.
The new law aims to ensure the transparency of public sector activities, according to the press service of the Parliament. The document provides that the electronic or holographic signature will no longer be mandatory in requests for access to information of public interest. Also, the project defines the term of information of public interest, provides for the expansion of the list of information providers, as well as the reduction of the deadline for the examination and resolution of requests.
Another provision of the new law concerns information with limited accessibility. Thus, access to information of public interest may be limited if the disclosure of the information will harm public safety, international relations, the prevention or discovery of crimes or misdemeanors, intellectual property rights, trade secrets, etc. At the same time, it will be prohibited to limit access to information of public interest that constitutes personal data related to the professional activity of public agents, such as: name, surname, position, studies, professional experience, remuneration, conflicts of interest, unextinguished disciplinary sanctions.
The draft law on access to information of public interest was developed by the Ministry of Justice with the support of the European Union. The project was also debated on the platform of the Working Group on media legislation, and experts from Freedom House Moldova, API, APEL and CJI came up with several proposals to improve the document.
Source: multimedia.parlament.md
