Proactive Transparency: The Future of the Right to Information?

Abstract

There are two main ways by which information held by public bodies can be accessed by the public. The first is when individual members of the public file requests for and receive information (reactive disclosure). The second is when information is made public at the initiative of the public body, without a request being filed. This is known as proactive disclosure and the result is proactive transparency which can be achieved using a multiplicity of means ranging from publications and official gazettes, to publicly accessible notice boards, to radio and television announcements, to posting on the Internet via a public institution’s website. This paper reviews the development of, and the emerging standards for, proactive disclosure.

Citation

Access to Information Working Paper Series, World Bank Institute, 60 pp.

Proactive Transparency: The Future of the Right to Information?

Published 1 January 2010