Supporting Access to Information: A Practical Guide for EU Delegations

This Practical Guide prepared by Technical Assistance Facility Media4Democracy (M4D) managed by the Directorate General International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) provides non-mandatory technical guidance to EU Delegations (EUDs). It builds off the guidance in the EU Human Rights Guidelines on Freedom of Expression Online and Offline1 (EU Guidelines on Freedom of Expression) that describe actions the EU institutions and Member States should take to support access to information.

The Guide shows how support for the principle of public access to information and the practical implementation of access to information (ATI) laws reinforce the EU’s work around the world in promoting participatory democracy, good governance, freedom of expression and other fundamental rights, and human development overall. Among other things, it notes regional agreements and instruments relevant to the practical application of access to information principles which are invaluable references, both for the policy guidance they provide to EU Delegations and as potential models for such regulations and systems in other regions where the EU supports progress in this area. There is much to be done – and much that EU Delegations can do to help. These are some of the practical, effective steps that EUDs have already taken to improve public access to information in developing countries: 

• Training journalists in the use of access to information laws
• Providing technical IT aid to state agencies running online ATI systems
• Supporting public information campaigns about citizens’ ‘right to know’
• Aiding in the drafting of ATI laws, with expert advisers in the field
• Sponsoring cross-border consultations of ATI systems specialists
• Collaborating in legal training programmes for judges and prosecutors 

• Assisting countries in measuring local ATI progress in accord with the commitments of SDG16-10, in conjunction with media and civil society 

  This Practical Guide overall provides tools and hands-on examples for EU Delegations to study and perhaps to emulate, including a review of the EU’s own policy guidance and recent history in this area.