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Germany set to restrict its Freedom of Information Act

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21–30 of 203 posts

Re: Germany set to restrict its Freedom of Information Act

#21

I'm not really sure I buy the alarm on restricting FoI requests to German citizens and EU citizens in Germany. Should a random US citizen be able to ask a random Germany government official for data? Why?

This is a minor point. It gives the government broad power to reject any request, associations and media outlets are excluded, it costs more and the mandatory REDACTION OF NAMES is undercutting accountability completely.

Yea, I don't give a shit wether only citizen should be able to request data.

Re: Germany set to restrict its Freedom of Information Act

#23

What incidents are driving such a change?

Recently there was a days long blackout in the middle of winter in Berlin due to a left-extremist attack on power line infrastructure [1]. This was mainly because all those critical infrastructure information is publicly accessible. I can imagine the goal is to prevent such critical information being publicly available in the future.

Also, there was big scandal from then health minister of Germany [2] and the information came out through various media out lets. I can imagine the politicians wants to prevent that happening in the future as well, so the corruption would go undetected (this is just my opinion)

[1]- https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-blackout-how-dangerous-are-left... [2] - https://www.dw.com/en/covid-19-german-govt-suffers-defeat-in...

Re: Germany set to restrict its Freedom of Information Act

#24

Worth noting that this is a push from the CDU who are leading the government, but their coalition partner the SPD has already come out pretty strongly against this, so it's rather unclear if this would ever actually go through (not to mention challenges from constitutional courts). The CDU cannot unilaterally push through legislation without the SPD. The SPD has rolled over for the CDU in the past on things, but they…

First phrase in the article: "Shortly before the German parliament's summer recess, lawmakers approved a whole series of reforms." Sounds like "done and dusted" to me. The Bundesrat (the second chamber of the parliament) also approved, er... something, but it's not clear to me if it's just the health measures or also the rest. What's left is for the Bundespräsident to sign it, but that's a formality.

And yes, no idea why the SPD is so on board with this - some measures, like having to provide a medical certificate from the first day of an illness (which in practice means you have to go see a doctor personally on the first day of sickness), are definitely not going to increase the dismal approval ratings of this government. So, for example, if you're prone to migraines, until now you would have simply called in sick for a day, now you have to drag yourself to the doctor, only for them to tell you (after potentially hours of waiting) "oh, you do look very pale and sickly today, you probably do have a migraine, here's the certificate. I assume you already took one or several headache pills? Now please, go home and rest."?!

Re: Germany set to restrict its Freedom of Information Act

#26
post #11

Worth noting that this is a push from the CDU who are leading the government, but their coalition partner the SPD has already come out pretty strongly against this, so it's rather unclear if this would ever actually go through (not to mention challenges from constitutional courts). The CDU cannot unilaterally push through legislation without the SPD. The SPD has rolled over for the CDU in the past on things, but they…

"SPD will block this" is contradicted by SPD already voting for the identical Berlin version weeks ago.

Not identical but similar and state vs federal level, might as well be different parties. Thats not to say I am not Just as worried as you

Re: Germany set to restrict its Freedom of Information Act

#27

I'm not really sure I buy the alarm on restricting FoI requests to German citizens and EU citizens in Germany. Should a random US citizen be able to ask a random Germany government official for data? Why?

How about the us citizen who is a permanent resident in Germany? German family? Business partners?

[deleted]

Re: Germany set to restrict its Freedom of Information Act

#28
post #24

Worth noting that this is a push from the CDU who are leading the government, but their coalition partner the SPD has already come out pretty strongly against this, so it's rather unclear if this would ever actually go through (not to mention challenges from constitutional courts). The CDU cannot unilaterally push through legislation without the SPD. The SPD has rolled over for the CDU in the past on things, but they…

First phrase in the article: "Shortly before the German parliament's summer recess, lawmakers approved a whole series of reforms." Sounds like "done and dusted" to me. The Bundesrat (the second chamber of the parliament) also approved, er... something, but it's not clear to me if it's just the health measures or also the rest. What's left is for the Bundespräsident to sign it, but that's a formality. And yes, no idea…

This hasn't been voted on in the Bundesttag yet, let alone the Bundesrat or Bundespräsident.

Re: Germany set to restrict its Freedom of Information Act

#30
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A country in decay..

I'd generally agree, but my follow up question would be: which western country isn't?

Denmark?

The Swiss?

Norway?

And I was in Serbia lately, and while it was not as developed as NW-EU, nobody there described it as decaying (and many said they experiences decay when living in western nations over the past 2 decades).

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