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Monday, December 01, 2008

Access to information as a human right

Kay Mathiesen, Access to Information as a Human Right, working paper, September 7, 2008. (Thanks to Legal Research Plus.) Abstract:
Information rights include rights to create and communicate information (e.g., freedom of expression, freedom of association), to control others' access to information (e.g., privacy and intellectual property), and rights to access information (e.g., freedom of thought, the right to read). This paper focuses on those rights related to free access to information and argues that access to information is indeed a fundamental human right. It is further argued that the right to access is not merely a liberty right, but also a welfare right. That is, individuals' information rights place duties on governments to provide access to information.