What are the basic principles of government information disclosure?

In recent years, the openness of the government has been continuously improved. So, what are the basic principles of the government information disclosure law? These principles are formulated on the basis of certain laws. On the one hand, they play a positive role in promoting the work of government departments, on the other hand, they are conducive to the public's understanding of government work information, thus promoting the work. Government information refers to the information produced or obtained by administrative organs in the process of performing their duties, recorded and preserved in a certain form. What is the basic principle of government information disclosure? This is a standard for relevant departments to perform their duties better. When it comes to the principle of government information disclosure, a well-known saying is that "disclosure is the principle, and non-disclosure is the exception". There are two points to be clarified: first, the so-called "publicity is the principle, and non-publicity is the exception" is a popular saying, not French. Article 5 of the Regulations stipulates: "Administrative organs shall follow the principles of justice, fairness and convenience when disclosing government information." Second, this popular statement is generally in line with the original intention of the law, but it needs to be specifically identified and defined. Government information can be divided into two categories-public information and personal information. The so-called public information refers to the information produced by administrative organs according to their functions and powers, which is suitable for the use of unspecified majority. The voluntary disclosure of government information listed in Articles 10,1and 12 of the Regulations belongs to public information except for individual matters. For public information, it should be "based on the principle of publicity, with the exception of non-publicity". In principle, public information should be made public voluntarily, with two exceptions: one is state secrets; The other category may endanger public interests, such as "national security, public security, economic security and social stability shall not be endangered" as stipulated in Article 8 of the Regulations. The so-called personal information refers to personal information and enterprise information produced or obtained by administrative organs according to their functions and powers. This kind of information is first of all personal and business information, which is primary, and then government information, which is secondary. Since such personal information often belongs to or may involve personal privacy or business secrets, the administrative organ should make an exception to the principle of non-disclosure. Personal information is not disclosed in principle, and there are two exceptions to disclosure: one is disclosure with the consent of the obligee. One question that needs to be clarified in the operation is: in the process of consulting the opinions of the right holder, if the right holder fails to reply within the time limit, is it regarded as agreement or disagreement? The author believes that according to the concept of protection priority, it should be "based on the principle of non-disclosure" and regarded as not agreeing to disclosure. The other is because of the need of public interest, the administrative organ thinks that non-disclosure may have a significant impact on public interest, that is, if the public interest protected by publicity is greater than the personal privacy or business secrets protected by non-disclosure, it can decide to make it public on its own initiative. Regarding personal information, legal persons or other organizations other than enterprises do not belong to the category of personal information. Specifically, it can be divided into three situations: one is the business entity with business secrets similar to those of enterprises, such as individual industrial and commercial households and partnership economic entities. In the past legislation and law enforcement practice, this kind of subject was implemented with reference to enterprises, without special explanation. Second, legal persons or other organizations with public welfare nature, including state organs, institutions, private non-enterprise units and mass organizations other than administrative organs. Because of the public welfare nature of their organization, their information is also based on the principle of openness, which should belong to the scope of voluntary disclosure. The third is autonomous organizations (such as neighborhood committees and village committees) and self-regulatory organizations (such as trade associations and owners' committees). The information generated by exercising public management functions according to law should belong to the category of government information. Public information involving unspecified majority should be made public, while personal information should be kept confidential. Article 5 of the Regulations on the Openness of Government Information stipulates that administrative organs shall follow the principles of justice, fairness and convenience. Article 6 stipulates that administrative organs shall disclose government information in a timely and accurate manner. If an administrative organ finds false or incomplete information that affects or may affect social stability and disrupt social management order, it shall issue accurate government information within its scope of duties to clarify it. Article 7 stipulates that the administrative organ shall establish and improve the coordination mechanism of government information release. If the government information released by an administrative organ involves other administrative organs, it shall communicate and confirm with the relevant administrative organs to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the government information released by the administrative organs. Article 8 stipulates that the disclosure of government information by administrative organs shall not endanger national security, public security, economic security and social stability. Citizens have the right to request correction of inaccurate government information records related to them. Citizens, legal persons or other organizations have the right to request correction if they have evidence to prove that the government information records related to them provided by administrative organs are inaccurate. At the same time, the regulations stipulate that if the administrative organ has no right to make corrections, it shall be transferred to the administrative organ that has the right to make corrections and inform the applicant. According to the regulations, if a citizen, legal person or other organization applies to an administrative organ for providing government information related to its own tax payment, social security, medical care and health care, it shall produce valid identity documents or supporting documents. Citizens can take the initiative to apply to the government for relevant government information, which covers a wide range and involves all aspects of social production and life, while a considerable part of government information only involves some people and things. Based on this, the Regulations on the Openness of Government Information stipulates that citizens, legal persons or other organizations can take the initiative to apply to the government for the government information they need. In addition to the government information voluntarily disclosed by the administrative organs as stipulated in the Regulations, citizens, legal persons or other organizations can also apply to the State Council departments, local people's governments at all levels and local people's governments at or above the county level for obtaining relevant government information according to their own special needs in production, life and scientific research. According to the regulations, an application for obtaining government information from an administrative organ shall be made in written form (including data message form); If it is really difficult to use a written form, the applicant may make an oral proposal, and the administrative organ that accepts the application will fill in the application form for government information disclosure. According to the regulations, the administrative organ should reply to the government information applied for disclosure in the following four situations: if it belongs to the scope of disclosure, it should inform the applicant of the ways and means to obtain the government information; If it belongs to the scope of non-disclosure, it shall inform the applicant and explain the reasons; If the administrative organ refuses to disclose the government information according to law or the government information does not exist, it shall inform the applicant; if the government information disclosure organ can be determined, it shall inform the applicant of the name and contact information of the administrative organ; If the application content is not clear, the applicant shall be informed to make changes and supplements. The regulations specifically stipulate that if the government information applied for disclosure contains contents that should not be disclosed, but can be treated differently, the administrative organ shall provide the applicant with information contents that can be disclosed. At the same time, the regulations clarify that if the administrative organ believes that the government information applied for disclosure involves trade secrets and personal privacy, which may harm the legitimate rights and interests of third parties after disclosure, it shall seek the opinions of third parties in writing; If the third party does not agree to the disclosure, it shall not disclose it. However, if the administrative organ believes that non-disclosure may have a significant impact on public interests, it shall make it public, and notify the third party in writing of the contents and reasons of the government information decided to make it public. The four types of government information should be disclosed voluntarily and clearly defined. The administrative organ shall voluntarily disclose government information that meets one of the following basic requirements: involving the vital interests of citizens, legal persons or other organizations; Need to be widely known or involved by the public; Reflect the institutional setup, functions and procedures of administrative organs; Others should be made public voluntarily in accordance with laws, regulations and relevant provisions of the state. Township government: eight kinds of information, such as the implementation of family planning policy, must be made public. These eight kinds of government information are: the implementation of the national rural work policy; Financial revenue and expenditure, management and use of various special funds; Township (town) land use planning, land use audit; Expropriation or requisition of land, house demolition, payment and use of compensation and subsidy fees; The creditor's rights and debts of the township (town), financing and labor; Distribution of emergency rescue and disaster relief, special care, relief and social donations; Contracting, leasing and auction of township collective enterprises and other township economic entities; Implement the family planning policy. Except for those listed in Articles 14 and 23 of the Regulations on the Openness of Government Information in People's Republic of China (PRC) that are not disclosed according to law, all government information related to economic and social management and public services shall be disclosed or provided upon application. The administrative organs should follow the principles of justice, fairness and convenience when disclosing government information. At present, it is the focus of this legislative work to establish the basic principles of government information disclosure legislation and then build a specific system to guide the legal construction of government information disclosure with the principle of administration according to law. First, the principle of government responsibility. That is to say, in China's government information disclosure law, relevant systems should be designed from the perspective of government responsibility, and information disclosure should be clearly defined as the responsibility of administrative organs to strengthen the government's sense of responsibility. If information disclosure is stipulated from the perspective of civil rights, it will not be easy to be implemented as a positive act of the government, and it will become an excuse for some staff to evade the responsibility of information disclosure. It is necessary to clarify the rights and obligations of the government and citizens in the disclosure and use of government information. That is, administrative organs have the right to collect, obtain, disseminate, publish and keep confidential relevant information, citizens have the right to ask administrative organs with relevant information to disclose such information, and government organs have the obligation to disclose such information in accordance with the provisions of the law or at the request of citizens. Second, the principle of universal openness. The so-called general disclosure principle refers to the disclosure of all government information except those matters that are not disclosed by laws and administrative regulations. Information that should not be disclosed mainly involves national security, efficiency of administrative activities, personal privacy and business secrets. The legislation of government information disclosure in all countries of the world is based on the principle of publicity, except for non-publicity. How to scientifically define the scope of undisclosed information is a key problem to be solved in the legislation of government information disclosure. It is necessary for China's government information disclosure legislation to learn from foreign experience and further study the standards of undisclosed matters, which not only ensures that administrative organs can decide whether to disclose relevant information according to the requirements of public interests, but also effectively prevents the abuse of administrative discretion. Third, the principle of information sharing between government departments. Influenced by the extensive information management mode of various departments under the traditional planned economy system, there is a serious departmental tendency in information collection, analysis and management of various departments, and government information is fragmented and unsystematic. On the one hand, it increases the burden of citizens to provide information, on the other hand, it also affects administrative efficiency, resulting in a huge waste of resources, affecting the efficiency and quality of administrative decision-making, which is not conducive to the realization of administration according to law. Government information legislation should strengthen information sharing among departments, save the cost of information disclosure system and reduce unnecessary duplication of work. Fourth, the principle of timely disclosure. In order to urge the administrative organs to publish information in a timely and effective manner, the information disclosure laws of various countries clearly stipulate the time limit for information publication. China's government information disclosure legislation should also stipulate the time limit for government information disclosure. In addition, in order to ensure the timely disclosure of information, in addition to the prescribed time limit, a government information registration system should be established, the existing information should be scientifically sorted and classified, and a government information catalogue should be compiled. Once citizens apply for public information, government workers can retrieve information in time and provide it to the applicants for the convenience of ordinary people. Five, to ensure that citizens can easily know the relevant government information principle. Government information disclosure must adhere to the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly and take safeguarding the best interests of the overwhelming majority of the people as the starting point and the end result. The direct purpose of government information disclosure is to facilitate citizens' production and life and reduce the negative impact of information closure on citizens' production and life. Therefore, the principle of convenience should be fully considered in legislation to ensure that citizens can obtain relevant information in time and accurately to meet the needs of production and life. We should give full play to the advantages of the network and make full use of the information disclosure function of government websites. The above is the answer to the question about the basic principles of government information disclosure. As an important role in social operation, the government not only plays an important management role in social economy and stability, but also the most fundamental purpose of government work is to serve the people. Therefore, government information disclosure is for the people.