Draft law on freedom of information is proposed in Egypt

A committee headed by Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Magdi El-Agati convened on Saturday to discuss a draft law regulating the right of citizens to access information of public interest held by the state, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported.

The committee agreed on the formation of a lesser committee to be headed by PM and lawyer Mohamed Abu Shoqa to complete the draft law.

El-Agati told reporters on Saturday that the law aims to put in place “mechanisms to protect and organise [state] information, data, and documents, classifying them according to the degree of confidentiality and stipulating the duration required before [such information] is made available to the public.”

Article 68 of the constitution says that state information, data, statistics, and official documents are property of the people, and that every citizen has a right to access this information.

No law has been put in place to regulate freedom of information since the constitution was drafted in 2014.

Source: Ahram Online