Strasbourg. 03/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Human Rights has recognised the public's right to information which concerns it, it was recalled in debates devoted to national security and access to information at the Council of Europe on Wednesday 2 October. However, national security itself may be a reason to prohibit or restrict access to the information in question. The tension between the two sometimes conflicting demands underpinned the discussions but did not prevent a resolution based on the report by Spanish Socialist Arcadio Diaz Tejera from being passed by 140 votes to 3, with 2 abstentions.
With this text, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) calls on the 47 member governments to incorporate into their national laws a series of general principles adopted by experts, representatives of civil society, academia and national security officers, and to sign and ratify the Convention of the Council of Europe on access to public documents. The Assembly came out clearly in favour of better protection for whistleblowers who act in the public interest by revealing abuses by states. Crimes such as homicides, forced disappearances, torture and abductions should not be protected by state secrecy, PACE says. Access to information must be granted, particularly when this brings important food for thought to a public debate. Alluding to the Wikileaks affair, Diaz Tejera stated that the revelations by Trooper Manning had not had serious diplomatic repercussions and were not harmful in the long term. He said that “the severity with which the US authorities are treating Mr Manning” is, therefore, “all the more inappropriate”. (VL/transl.fl)