Hungary

[HU] Freedom of Electronic Information Act Adopted

IRIS 2005-8:1/25

Márk Lengyel

Körmendy-Ékes & Lengyel Consulting, Budapest

On 4 July 2005 the Parliament of Hungary adopted Act XC. of 2005 on Freedom of Electronic Information. This Act aims at promoting the right of the citizens to have access to information of public interest held by public authorities. For this purpose the Act obliges public institutions to publish continuously on the Internet a significant body of information related to their work in a way that allows citizens to access these data without any identification and free of charge.

The kind of information to be published online is defined in detail by the appendix to the Act. The websites of public institutions shall also contain proper reference to the procedure followed in cases of particular requests for information submitted by individuals.

A set of particular rules of the Act is devoted to promoting transparency of legislation. According to these provisions, draft legal instruments and policy papers shall be published on the website of the relevant ministry or authority responsible for its preparation. All persons shall have the right to comment on these documents. These comments shall be duly summarised and taken into account. A further set of rules provides for the online publication of the minutes of the Parliament and its relevant committees when carrying out legislative tasks.

The online publication of Acts, Decrees and other legal instruments is also a subject of the Act, which prescribes the obligation to publish an electronic version of the Magyar Közlöny (the official journal) on the Internet. The Minister of Justice and the Minister heading the Prime Minister's Office shall also publish a database of Hungarian legislation in force. An efficient search engine for this database shall also be established.

Another significant feature of the Act is the obligation to publish online the judgments of the superior courts. Here too an efficient search engine is to be created. Publishing the compendium of these judgements as required by the act falls within the responsibility of the office of the Országos Igazságszolgáltatási Tanács (National Council of Justice), the independent administrative background organisation for the Hungarian courts.

The Act on Freedom of Electronic Information enters into force on the 1 January 2006. However, the obligations relating to the publication of judgments will not enter into force until the beginning of 2007.