The Coalición Pro Acceso calls for an open and participatory debate around Spain’s new access to information law
To mark International Right to Know Day (28 September) the Coalición Pro Acceso launched a campaign in support of access to information in Spain.
The Coalición Pro Acceso yesterday wrote to President Zapatero welcoming his recent announcements confirming that the Spanish Government is preparing a law on access to information. The platform of over 30 leading Spanish NGOs and academic experts called for the drafting of the law to be transparent and participatory to ensure inclusion of the Nine Principles which the Coalición Pro Acceso developed three years ago based on the study of law and practice in other countries.
In the letter to the Prime Minister, the Coalición Pro Acceso underlined the urgency of adopting a law that will create a full mechanism for exercising a right which is already recognised in the national laws of more than 80 countries, including 24 members of the European Union, but not yet in Spain.
«This law is a social aspiration which has already been included in the electoral programmes of the governing Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) in 2004 and 2008. It is a fundamental norm for any democracy and therefore it’s essential that its drafting be carried out in an open manner in consultation with civil society experts,» commented Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info and one of the founders of the Coalición Pro Acceso.