The White Paper on freedom of information (2) : the quest to release information proactively

Abstract

The Freedom of Information Bill does hot apply to documents insofar as they contain information the disclosure of which is prohibited by any other law. This is a blanket provision, bearing in mind the several secrecy and confidentiality provisions that exist in Maltese law, some of which date to colonial times. By framing this provision is such a general way; it is possible, through other laws, to narrow down, not to say exclude, the purport of the FOIA. These other laws, which are numerous, can indeed nullify the FOIA. Hence, an exercise should be carried out before the Bill is published to identify these various laws and decide which are to be excluded from the purview of the FOIA and which not. An appendix in the form of a table should state which are these laws that are to be excluded from the operation of the FOIA.