The Essential Concepts For The Regulation of The Right To Public Information

Abstract

Regulation ofthe right to information isvery essential in a democratic country. This isbecause the more open the governmentis towardsthe public, the more accountable itwill be. However, theoretical and conceptual studies on the right to informationare limited. For this reason, thisstudy intends to specifically review the basic concepts that must exist in an ideal right to information regulation. This research is a normative legal research (doctrinal) with a normative-conceptual approach. Data wereobtained through a literature study and analyzed descriptively and analytically. This study concludes that the right to information is conceptually based on the government's obligation to fulfill citizens' requests to access public information without exception (maximum disclosure) as well as on the obligation to proactively submit public information regularly and without being asked (obligation to publish). Conceptually, the right to information can be classified into primary, secondary and tertiary rights based on how far these rights are directly related to access to government information. Several important variables regulating the right to information include normative aspects, institutional design, and the existence of mechanisms or procedures that can ensure that the provisions of the right to information are complied with by all parties. Aspects of restrictions and exceptions to the right to information also need to be regulated, among others, by referring to the concept ofthethree-parttest.