Controversy over Violation of Right to Know

In the Cabinet Council held on Nov. 20 the Government examined and settled a revision of `laws concerning the public agencies` release of information`, the gist of which is that the public agencies are allowed to decline the release of information that may mar neutrality or confuse people in the process of determining important policies of the public agencies.

But a controversy is expected in the process of legislation as some civil organizations are defying the Government`s decision to allow declining the release of information when `it may confuse people`, arguing "Such a revision may lead administrative organs to expand the objects that cannot be released to the public on the basis of their arbitrary interpretation of the article."

The revision concretizes the previous definition of non-releasable information in the process of making decisions on policy as `information regarded as being able to interfere with just executions of operations` which is too inclusive and abstract.

The revision allows declining the release of information △ that may mar the neutrality of decision-making unjustly, △ that cause worries considerably about its possibility of confusing the public, △ that may harm those concerned with special interests or those participating in the process of decision-making about the matter where interests of many people are conflicting sharply with one another.

However, the Government eased the conditions for protecting the government officials` personal information, which had been subject to a dispute as it had been kept from being released for reasons of protecting individual`s privacy, and decided to disclose the names and positions of the government officials involved in administrative to secure the transparency of administration operations when the release of their personal information is requested.

Besides, the Cabinet Council decided a revision of the government organization law, the purport of which is to establish anew positions of director and deputy director of state affairs at the Office of State Affairs and to set up the Office of Aviation under Construction and Transportation Minister`s supervision, and a revision of the employment insurance law that allows applying employment insurance to daily-employed workers.

The Cabinet Council also decided to include credit guarantee funds, loan business firms and money exchangers in the category of financial institutions obliged to report financial transactions under suspicions of money laundering to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), and the standard amount for obligatory report to be 10 thousand US dollars or 50 million won.

Chol-Hi ee klimt@donga.com