The Executive Branch Yesterday, progress was made in modifying the regulations of Law 27,275through the redefinition of terminology and limiting access to private information. In response to this, a group of organizations They expressed their “concern” by the regulations and they assured that “attempts to restrict the right of Access to Public Information.”
The document is signed by 20 associations, including Citizen Power, the Center for Public Policy Implementation for Equity and Growth (CIPPEC), Legislative Directory, the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), Amnesty International and the School of Prosecutors, among others.
Civil organizations rejected Javier Milei’s modification to the Law on Access to Public Information
The signatories denounced that The regulatory decree “cannot limit the right of access to public information in contradiction with the scope of the Access to Information Law itself, passed by the National Congress in 2017.” They also point out that the exceptions established by Law 27,275, which allow the State to refuse to provide the requested information, “are far from what is regulated by the National Executive Branch.”
On the scope of the changes, They questioned that it “expands secrecy” and the discretion for officials to define which documents should be made available to citizens and which should not. “The aforementioned decree expands the information that is outside the public interest, expands secrecy and provides discretion by leaving in the hands of public officials the definition of what is a public document and what information can be considered part of the private sphere of the authorities,” they warned.
The changes grant “special protection” to public information, which implies “a serious regression in the interpretation of the right of access to information in light of international standards on human rights and the fight against corruption.” The organizations indicated that it also “generates a discretionary regulatory framework “whereby the political definitions of the government and the subjective decisions of officials would take precedence over the right to access information in the hands of the State.”
Given this situation, They requested the Executive Branch to review the implemented modifications and to repeal this Decree.so that “full access to public information is guaranteed.”
In addition to the organizations mentioned above, the following also signed the document: Salta Transparente, the Malvinas Islands Ex-Combatants Center CECIM La Plata, Red Ruido, Fundación Huésped, Fundeps, Fundación Nuestra Mendoza, Democracia en Red, Red Ciudadana Nuestra Córdoba, INECIP, CIPCE (Center for Research and Prevention of Economic Crime), Xumek (Association for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights), Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN), MundoSur and the Coordinator of Public Interest Lawyers (CAIP).
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Opposition rejects changes to the law on access to public information
Last night, the block of deputies of Federal Meeting He also spoke out against the modifications to Law 27,275. The space led by Miguel Pichetto expressed his “concern” about decree 780/24 and submitted a request for information to the Executive Branch to explain the scope of the restrictions imposed.
The opposition deputies asked “if the Executive Branch expressly consulted the Agency for Access to Public Information (AAIP) on the relevance, convenience and/or need to implement measures restricting access to public information“.
The head of the Union for the Homeland bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, Germán Martínez, explained in dialogue with Provincial Radio that the space presented “a draft resolution against the decree” and explained: “They disguise it as a regulation of the content of the law” so that it is taken as an “attribution of the Executive Branch.”
The deputy of the Civic Coalition, Maximilian Ferraro, He made a criticism through his official account on the X platform and described the Government as “the least liberal in the world”: “It is remarkable how the ‘liberals, the least liberal in the world’ go too far in regulating and interpreting the laws in such a restrictive and dangerous way.. The right to information is a citizen’s right that cannot be imprisoned by decree or applied at the mercy of the governments in power; it can only be regulated by a law of Congress. Where is the much-defended right to information?
Andrés Gil Domínguez questioned the decree that restricts access to public information: “It is unconstitutional”
The constitutional lawyer Andres Gil Dominguez He was another one who came out to meet Javier Milei by the decree that modifies the regulations of the Law on Access to Public Information“It violates a right considered essential to the democratic system.”
Through his official account on the X platform (formerly Twitter), the constitutional lawyer pointed out that “decree 780/2024 that Its purpose is to regulate Law 27,275 on access to public information “modifying the previous regulatory norm (decree 206/2017) is unconstitutional because it unreasonably alters its contents, ignoring the provisions of art. 28 of the Argentine Constitution and art. 29 of the American Convention on Human Rights.”
Source: Ambito
