The Council of Europe Access Info Group (AIG) has published its first evaluation report to assess the way the Republic of Moldova implements the Council of Europe known as the Tromsø Convention. The report published on July 16 demonstrates that the current legal framework largely conforms to the international standards, yet certain aspects still have to be improved.
The report provides a detailed analysis of the Law on Access to Information adopted in June 2023. According to the conclusions, the new legal framework largely complies with the provisions of the Tromsø Convention which is the first binding international legal instrument to recognize a general right of access to official documents held by public authorities.
“In the Republic of Moldova, the right of access to information held by the public authorities upon request is guaranteed without discrimination and pursuant to the convention which makes no distinction between journalists or any other persons,” the authors state. “However, in the absence of relevant information, the AIG has not provided any conclusions on excluding media information from the scope of the law and its special regulation via government procedures, and its compliance with the Convention remaining unclear,” the source specifies.
According to the experts, the limitations of the right of access to information stipulated by the law comply with all the interests mentioned in the Convention, such as national security, public order, crime prevention, and privacy protection. “Certain limitations of access to information such as state, banking, or medical secrets can be broad and even absolute due to their essence. Hence, in such cases, the AIG encourages the Republic of Moldova to apply the legal provisions which require assessing the public interest for divulging information and to ensure that applying absolute restrictions regarding access to official documents is minimized in accordance with the Convention,” the report states.
On March 31, 2022, at the meeting of the Parties to the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents also known as the Tromsø Convention, ten members of the Group of Specialists on Access to Official Documents were elected. The expert Veronica Cretu was elected as a member representing the Republic of Moldova.
The Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents is the first binding international legal tool which recognizes the general right of access to official documents held by the public authorities. The document is in force since December 1, 2020, and is currently ratified by 15 states, including the Republic of Moldova. Also on July 16, the AIG published its first reports regarding ten other states.