Turkish Right to Information Blog

Archive for April 6th, 2008

I regularly obtain detailed statistics through the Turkish FOI Council (BEDK) on the behalf of my organization BilgiEdinmeHakki.Org. The below information was obtained in March 2007 following a right to information request I lodged on 26 February, 2007.

The detailed statistics obtained from the Council in March 2007 reveal the following:

➢    Total No. appeal applications to the Council between 24/05/2004 – 26/02/2007: 2,676
➢    Total Number of Council decisions: 2,475
➢    Total number of decision books: 69
➢    Number of decision books published: 28
➢    Number of unpublished decision books: 41
➢    Number of decisions published: 641 (25%)
➢    Number of unpublished decisions: 1,834 (75%)
➢    Number of applications proceeded: 2,321
➢    Number of applications non-processed: 355
➢    Total Number of successful appeals: 977
➢    Total Number of partially successful appeals: 419
➢    Total number of rejected appeals: 888
➢    Total number of appeals in which further review was necessary: 10
➢    Total number of appeal applications to be discussed by the Council: 213

I have received further statistics through the Council in August 2007, and more recently in March 2008. I will publish these on these pages within the next few weeks together with some analysis. However, as can be seen above, only 25% of the 2475 decisions of the Council were publicly made available as of February 2007 and these 641 decisions were published following pressure from BilgiEdinmeHakki.Org through a number of right to information requests.

Until March 2007, while a total of 2475 decisions were laid down by the Council, only 71 of these were made public between 2004-2006! Following yet another request made in February 2007 by BilgiEdinmeHakki.Org the Council decided to change its policy in terms of the publications of its decisions. It was revealed that the Council would start publishing all its decisions from 09 March, 2007, the day the Council’s decision was sent to BilgiEdinmeHakki.Org.

Following the enactment of the Right to Information Act in Turkey, a Right to Information Assessment (Review) Council (Bilgi Edinme Degerlendirme Kurulu) was established to deal with appeals on rejected right to information requests. The Council’s activities are regulated by article 14 of the Right to Information Act 2003. Furthermore, the Prime Ministry prepared and put into force the regulation concerning the procedure and the basis for the activities and tasks of the Council almost two years after the Council started to convene, and this was published in the Official Gazette on 07 June, 2006. In addition to dealing with appeals, and resolving the disputes between the applicants and the public institutions, the Council also has the responsibility to prepare an annual statistical report on the application of the Right to Information Act in Turkey. The Council can also recommend amendments to the existing law if necessary.

The Council is composed of 9 members, and the Council members serve for four years. The names of the members of the Council were announced by the Prime Ministry on 27 May, 2004. The Council of Ministers appointed two members amongst the four candidates nominated by the General Board of the Court of Appeals and the Council of State from their members; three members, each amongst the scholars of criminal, constitutional and administrative law who bear the title of Professor or Associate Professors; one member among the two candidates that have the qualifications to be elected as chief of Bar and are nominated by the Turkish Bar Association, two members amongst those who have been serving as general director; and a member among judges in service of the Ministry of Justice as recommended by the Minister.

It is required under article 14 that the Council convenes at least once a month or anytime upon the call of the President when there is need. The Council can set up commissions and working groups and in addition may invite representatives from the ministries, non-governmental organisations and other institutions to participate in the meetings as it finds appropriate.

There were calls for the enactment of a Turkish freedom of information laws for many years. The 1982 Turkish Constitution through article 26 only provided a right of free expression including the right to receive information but this did not include a right to seek information from public authorities. There was a serious attempt at legislation between 1998-2001. A draft bill entitled Idari Usul ve Bilgi Edinme Hakki Kanunu (Administrative Procedural and Right to Information Law) was developed by the Prime Ministry but this was never discussed at the Parliament.

Subsequently, the 58th Government Plan of 2003 (Ak Party -Justice and Development Party) announced that the government would legislate and provide its citizens with a right to information to ensure transparency, participation, and public accountability. This was a welcome announcement towards openness, and democratization in Turkey. Turkey, was not for example, obliged by the European Union to adopt a freedom of information law with regards to its pending membership negotiations with the European Union. In fact, on the contrary, Turkey was quicker than Germany to adopt such a law and to provide its citizens with a right to receive information from public institutions. Further details for the legislation were revealed within the Government’s January 2003 Emergency Action Plan, and it was announced that the work towards the drafting of a Right to Information Act would be conducted within the next three months. This was part of the government’s plan to reform the central public administration and the lead responsibility was given to the Ministry of Justice.

The draft legislation prepared by the Ministry of Justice was introduced to the Parliament on 25 June, 2003. A Parliamentary report by the EU Compatibility Commission of the Parliament was published on 16 July, 2003. A subsequent report on the draft bill prepared by the Justice Commission of the Turkish Parliament was published on 24 July, 2003.

On 08-09 October, 2003 the Turkish Parliament discussed the Right to Information Bill. 237 Turkish MPs out of a total of 550 were present for the final voting on the Right to Information Bill and all of the present MPs (including from the opposition) unanimously voted for the Bill to become law. The Turkish Parliament enacted the Right to Information Act 2003, Bilgi Edinme Hakki Kanunu (No: 4982). The government also announced the drafting of two further legislation to clarify the meaning of “state secrecy” and “trade secrets” on the day the Right to Information Act was enacted. Although the draft bills on these related secrecy laws (Devlet Sırları Kanunu Tasarısı, and Ticari Sırlar Kanunu Tasarısı) were published by the Ministry of Justice during 2004, they are yet to become law as of this writing.

The Right to Information Act 2003 came into force six months after the date of its publication in the Official Gazette on 24 April, 2004.

The 2003 legislation aims to regulate the procedure and the basis of the right to information according to the principles of equality, impartiality and openness that are the necessities of a democratic and transparent government (article 1). The law covers all public institutions and private institutions performing public functions.

The Right to Information Act 2003 ( Law No. 4982) is accessible in English through the BilgiEdinmeHakki.Org pages.