Germany set to curb its Freedom of Information Act

Shortly before the German parliament's summer recess, lawmakers approved a whole series of reforms. "These reforms are meant to get Germany back on track," said Chancellor Friedrich Merz optimistically.

Toward the bottom of the 34-point list of reforms is something that has begun to cause great controversy: the ruling coalition of conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/ Christian Social Union (CSU) and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) wants to significantly alter the Freedom of Information Act (IFG) , which has been in effect since 2006. Critics say, the plan is to abolish it altogether.

The IFG grants every individual the right to access official information held by federal agencies. This is the law that many organizations, including environmental groups, consumer protection organizations and, not least, journalists, cite to demand that government agencies provide them with data and substantive material quickly and free of charge.

Exceptions apply only to security-related information, such as that held by intelligence agencies, which is, understandably, subject to special protection.

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The IFG is crucial for journalists and NGOs

However, in the opinion of CDU and CSU, all government information must be treated with exceptional confidentiality in an era of global cyberwarfare and hacker attacks. The government has long intended to significantly amend the regulations.

Now, the 34-point reform paper states that there is a particular need to protect government data during "times of highly complex threats, both domestic and foreign."

According to the government's plan, this could effectively mean that only "natural persons" — not associations or organizations — would have the right to submit requests to government agencies. Currently, requests submitted to, for example, federal ministries are answered either free of charge or for a small fee; now, fees could rise significantly. And the names of employees in government agencies and ministries, among others, could be redacted in the future to protect them "from hostility and threats."

Foreign citizens' rights

What is likely to be even more controversial: the government wants to look into the legality, under current law, of limiting these rights to "German citizens and EU citizens living in Germany" — that is, to citizens of the European Union. What's more, information on subjects like critical infrastructure, counterintelligence and counterterrorism should be handled with particular care going forward.

As a member of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel overseeing the intelligence services, Konstantin von Notz, lawmaker from the opposition Green Party, is very familiar with handling sensitive information. Yet he has said about the new plans: "Under the pretext of having to adapt to new security threats, they are fundamentally undermining the legal foundations of government transparency." The coalition promised to modernize the state, he said, but this is "the exact opposite — namely, a drastic step backward from hard-won civil rights."

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An open letter from 110 organizations

In an open letter , 110 civil society organizations — including Greenpeace, Transparency International and Amnesty International — have urged the government: "Stop these plans! Protect the Freedom of Information Act (IFG) and freedom of information in its current form." The letter continues: "Anyone who limits the right to access information to individual cases, subjects it to mandatory justification, excludes organizations and raises fees — without warning — to exorbitant levels is effectively abolishing freedom of information."

Martin Kaiser, a climate expert with the environmental group Greenpeace, told DW: "If the federal government now wants to curtail the right to information, it will hinder oversight and public participation and reduce public acceptance regarding infrastructure, land use, species conservation and climate protection. This does not build trust; it creates new mistrust."

Criticism has been so fierce that even members of the ruling coalition in the Bundestag now want to reconsider the planned reform. Experts from the Social Democratic Party's Bundestag committees on the Interior, Digital Affairs and Consumer Protection have issued a joint statement declaring: "Any curtailment of the existing rights of citizens, the press and civil society to access information must not be allowed to proceed." It continues: "The SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag will not approve any move to abolish the current level of transparency provided by the Freedom of Information Act."

About 100,000 information requests in seven years

According to official figures, the existing right to information has been widely exercised. As the Bundestag reported, a total of approximately 105,000 requests were submitted to German authorities between 2015 and 2022. In only a fraction of those cases — about 16,200 — was information partially withheld, while in about 9,000 cases was it denied entirely. In other words, information was disclosed in response to most requests. Critics fear that this trend could be reversed in the future.

This article has been translated from German.

DW Akademie. Free Media. Free expression. Free societies.

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