Editorial: Transparency is good for all

On Tuesday, the Access to Government Information Law (政府資訊公開法) passed the third reading in the legislature. The law requires the government to create indexes and summaries of all official documents -- with the exception of national secrets and information that infringes on privacy, business secrets and intellectual property rights -- and provide fee-based access to this information to all Taiwanese. The overdue passage of this law is of great importance for reporters, and aids in the protection of the rights of the general public and the supervision of the government by civil groups.

In the run-up to the Dec. 3 local elections, candidates from both camps suffered the effects of smear campaigns. A "culture of disclosure" overshadowed discussion on public policies and marked a new low for election campaigns. Several lawmakers used their legislative immunity to attack their opponents by disclosing incomplete or false data without stating their sources. Since it was impossible to verify the information, the media became the puppets of political parties. Although the public was fed up with these disclosures halfway through the campaign, it was impossible to end it it.

The new law will change all this. It is now possible to supervise the government and officials, and determine whether they have been involved in misconduct, by carefully searching for, reading, comparing and compiling treaties signed by the government, documents dealing with foreign relations, policy plans, research reports, budgets, public construction and procurement contracts, as well as reports on subsidies to agencies and meeting protocols.

Non-governmental organizations and the media can now request that the government provide the tender documents for the MRT project in Kaohsiung or financial information provided by electoral candidates. Political parties, candidates and reporters will now have the wherewithal to expose government corruption or claim that government policies are inappropriate, while government officials will be able to defend themselves in an open and fair manner.

Article 18 of the law, however, lists nine categories of government information to which access will be limited or denied. These include information legally designated as state secrets and information that is deemed secret under other laws whose publication is limited or prohibited. Information that involves human rights, individual privacy, maintaining fair examinations, benefits to state-operated enterprises and cultural capital, can also be exempted.

The question now is who will define what constitutes a state secret. Because the government is both the supervised and the supervisor, it may put the label "state secret" on information that it does not want publicized, which would lead to disputes.

Article 21 addresses this, stating that an applicant who does not accept the information a government institution has decided to provide has the legal right to file an administrative complaint.

The government should also amend the State Secrets Act (國家機密法) to meet the requirements of both national security and the public's right to know.

Friday was International Anti-Corruption Day. The results of the annual Corruption Perception Index showed that Taiwan's ranking among 12 Asian countries fell from fourth in 2003 to sixth this year. The Taiwan chapter of the international non-governmental organization Transparency International also recently published a report saying that about 80 percent of the public believe that the legislature and the political parties are the most corrupt entities in the nation.