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Estonia is one of the countries in Eastern Europe with especially effective freedom of information legislation and strong implementation mechanisms and institutions. The right to access information held by public authorities is declared as a constitutional right of citizens and defined under Article 44 of Estonian Constitution.

The basic legal act regulating access to publicly important information is the Public Information Act adopted in 2000 and enacted in January 2001. Other relevant laws are the Data Protection Act, Archives Act, State Secrets Act and Environmental Register Act.

One of the specific features of the Estonian Public Information Act is the wide range of institutions and individuals that must provide information on legitimate request of a person/organization. According to Estonian Public Information Act the list of public information holders who must disclose information on request of citizen of an organization include public administration bodies, non-governmental organizations and private companies that conduct publicly important activities such as, for example, education, healthcare, social work or other public services.

The right to access official documents or information held by public authorities or private companies in Estonia may be restricted in the case of documents or information classified as state secret. The State Secrets Act sets four levels of classification, and information can be classified for up to fifty years. Internal information, which may be withheld for five years, is defined under the Public Information Act and may include information concerning pending court cases; collected in the course of state supervision proceedings; potentially damaging for the foreign relations of the State; relating to armaments and location of military units; potentially endangering heritage or natural habitats; concerning security measures; draft legislation and regulations; other documents not in the register; and personal information. Access to information relating to public opinion polls, generalized statistics, economic and social forecasts, the environment, property and consumer-product quality cannot be restricted.  Note that according to the Data Protection Act, individuals have a right to access the information about themselves held by public and private bodies.

The Public Information Act requires that the authorities register requests for information and respond to the applicant within five working days. Information is usually provided for free unless a fee for release of information is provided for by the law. The law contains a positive obligation for public authorities to public information on their web sites and ensure update of that information. In general, the Estonian Public Information Act contains a number of provisions related to electronic access to and publications of official information. Estonia is known as one of the countries that have achieved significant results in development and implementation of electronic government tools and applications. Estonian Public Information Act is one of legal basis of a well-established e-governance system of the country.

An important institutional element of the Estonian freedom of information legislation is the existence of an independent public authority responsible for the supervision over the compliance with enforcement of the Estonian Public Information Act. Supervision over the implementation of freedom of information legislation in Estonia is carried out by Data Protection Authority, which annually reports to the Estonian Legislature concerning the compliance with the Public Information Act. Any person who has been denied access to requested information may file a complaint with the Data Protection Authority or with an administrative court.

Analysis provided by David Sandukhchyan, Director, Internews Armenia Center for Information Law and Policy, OSCE/ODIHR consultant.

Posted: February 2007

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