What is the freedom of information law in the United States?

It should be called the Freedom of Information Act:

The Freedom of Information Act promulgated by the United States 1966 is an administrative regulation aimed at promoting the information disclosure of the federal government in the United States. Its main contents are as follows: except for some government information, the records and archives of the federal government are open to everyone in principle; Citizens can apply to any level of government agencies for inquiry and reproduction; Government agencies must publish the organizational system of their own departments and the retrieval procedures, methods and items of information consultation accepted by organizations at all levels of their own departments, and provide classified indexes of information; After a citizen's request for information is rejected, he can bring a lawsuit to the judicial department, and the court should give priority; The administrative and judicial departments must handle information disclosure applications and lawsuits within a certain period of time.

Since 1966 promulgated this bill, the United States has revised and revised this bill many times. 1974 bill amendment narrows the scope of law enforcement exemption and national security exemption within the scope of government information exemption, and expands the procedures of charging, time limit and closed-door review; 1984, the national assembly abolished the provisions in 1966 that the court should give priority to handling litigation cases caused by citizens' information inquiry and that the judicial department should promptly review such litigation; The amendment 1986 expands the scope of exemption of information on law enforcement activities, increases the exception provisions of special law enforcement activities records, and establishes a new system of fee and rate reduction and exemption; From 65438 to 0996, the "Freedom of Electronic Information Amendment" promulgated by the American government mainly solved the problems of electronic information disclosure and information application backlog of administrative organs.

This article is a revised version of the Freedom of Information Act of 2002, translated from the website of the US Department of Justice. It is a combination of Freedom of Information Act 1986 and Freedom of Electronic Information Act 1996. Through this bill, we can understand the practice of American government information disclosure and get some lessons from it.

American freedom of information act

(Revised in 2002)

Section 552 of title 5 of the United States Code

Section 552: Public information; Institutional rules, opinions, orders, records and procedures:

(a) Institutions must provide the public with the following information:

(1) As a public guide, each organ shall separately state the following information in the Federal Register and publish it in time:

(a) Introduce the headquarters and branches, and the designated places and methods where the public can obtain information, make requests or get answers from employees (public officials in case of uniformed organizations) in the place;

Explain the overall process and method of developing and establishing the functions of this institution, including the nature and necessary conditions of all existing formal and informal procedures;

(c) The rules of procedure, the description of the forms that can be obtained or the place where the forms can be obtained, and the guidance on the scope and contents of all documents, reports or inspection records;

(4) The generally applicable substantive rules formulated by this organ in accordance with the authorization of the law, a description of the basic policies formulated and adopted by this organ, or a description of the generally applicable interpretations adopted by this organ;

(e) correction, amendment or revocation of the above contents.

For some information content that needs to be published in the Federal Register but has not yet been published, no one may require the use of the information content in any way, and no one may be negatively affected by the information content unless the person has been informed of the conditions for using the information content in time. Some information that should be obtained for the relevant personnel shall be deemed to have been published in the Federal Register after being approved by the Director of the Federal Register.

(2) According to the published rules, the public information that each organ is obliged to provide to the public for inspection and copying includes:

(a) the final ruling on the case, including opinions and rulings for and against the case;

(b) Policy statements adopted by the agency that have not been published in the Federal Register and their explanations;

(c) Staff handbooks and staff guides affecting the public;

(d) According to paragraph (3) of subsection (a), after being made public to a number of people, the agency decided to provide them with copies of documents in any form or format that will be made public in the future;

(e) A comprehensive index of the documents mentioned in subparagraph (d) of this paragraph.

Unless the above-mentioned documents are published in time and copies are sold, the organization shall publish the documents formed on or after 1 996165438+10/0/month, including making them available to the public through computer remote communication and other equipment within one year. If there is no such equipment, other electronic means can be used. In order to prevent unauthorized invasion of personal privacy when the institution makes public or publishes opinions, policy statements or explanations, staff manuals and instructions or copies of documents mentioned in item (d) of this paragraph, the institution may delete details about revealing personal identity, and shall clearly explain the reasons for deletion in writing, and the deleted parts shall be marked in the public documents, unless such marks will harm the interests of exemption protection mentioned in item (b). If technology permits, the degree of deletion should be indicated where it is deleted. The institutions shall also provide the current index for public inspection and reproduction, which shall indicate to the public all documents issued, adopted or promulgated after July 4, 1967, which shall be used by the public or must be made public according to the provisions of paragraph (a) (2). Each organ shall publish and distribute each issue of the Index and its supplements in a timely manner through sales or other means, unless the organ considers it unnecessary or impossible to publish the Index. This decision must be published in the Federal Register. In this case, the administrative organ must still provide a copy of the index at the request of the public, and charge a fee not exceeding the direct cost of copying the index. Each organ shall publish the current index mentioned in item (2) (e) of paragraph (a) of this Law by computer remote communication before1999 65438+February 3 1 day. In the following cases, the final ruling, opinions, policy statements, explanations and staff manuals or instructions that have an impact on the public can only be used as the basis of the agency and as a precedent for citing and using against non-agency parties:

(i) The above-mentioned documents have been indexed according to this paragraph and made available for public use or publication;

(ii) or the parties concerned have been actually informed of the contents of the document in a timely manner.

(3)(A) Except for the records provided to the public according to the provisions of paragraphs (a) (1) and (2) and the circumstances stipulated in paragraph (a) (3) (e), each agency must provide the records it needs to anyone immediately after receiving the application for records, but the application of the public must: (i) (ii) conform to the requirements promulgated by the agency.

(b) According to the requirements of this paragraph, in order to make information available to the public, all agencies shall provide documents in the form or format required by any applicant, if the documents can be easily reproduced in that form or format. Each organ shall make appropriate efforts to keep the form or format of documents unchanged.

(c) On the basis of not hindering the operation of the automated information system as much as possible, all organs should make appropriate efforts to find documents in electronic form or format.

(d) The term "retrieval" in this paragraph refers to the manual or automatic retrieval of institutional materials in order to find the materials required by the applicant.

(e) According to the provisions of this paragraph, the organ to which the intelligence agency belongs or individual departments within the organ [as defined in Article 3(4) of the National Security Law of 1947] shall not disclose information to the following institutions-

(i) Any government entity other than a state, local, federal, U.S. territory or its subdivisions;

(ii) the government agencies mentioned in clause (i).

(4)(A)(i) In order to implement the provisions of this Law, all organs shall promulgate laws and regulations according to the procedures for notifying and collecting public opinions, stipulate the fee schedule applicable to processing information applications, and formulate the procedures and guidelines for fee reduction and exemption. The standards of the fee schedule shall conform to the guidelines formulated by the Director of the Bureau of Administration and Budget according to the procedures for notifying and collecting public opinions, and the guidelines must provide uniform standards for fees charged by all institutions.

(ii) The regulations made by the organization must provide that-

(i) If the requested documents are used for commercial purposes, the cost of searching, copying and reviewing the documents shall be limited to reasonable standard prices;

(II) If the document is used for non-commercial purposes, but for educational or non-profit scientific institutions (whose purpose is to be used for academic or scientific research) or the agent of news media, the charge for copying the document shall be limited to a reasonable standard price;

(III) If the requirements of category (i) or (II) are not met, the cost of retrieving and copying documents shall be limited to reasonable standard prices.

(iii) If the disclosure of information is beneficial to the public, so that they can better understand the activities and operations of the government, not just commercial interests, the agency shall provide the document to the public free of charge or at a price lower than the charging standard in Article (ii).

(iv) The price list shall stipulate that only the direct costs of searching, copying or reviewing shall be charged, and the review costs only include the direct costs of the preliminary inspection of documents determined by the institution according to this Law and the direct costs of restoring documents exempted from opening according to this Law. The examination fee does not include any expenses for solving legal or policy problems arising from the process of handling the application for public information in accordance with this Law. According to the law, no institution may charge any fees under the following circumstances

(i) If the money is collected or the payment formalities are handled by the conventional method, the expenses spent are equal to or even exceed the receivable amount, or

(II) The information application filed under item (II) or (IIi) of paragraph (ii) of this paragraph belongs to information that can be retrieved or copied within 2 hours, and it is within 100 page.

(v) No institution may charge any fees in advance unless the applicant has a previous record of not paying in time or the fees exceed $250.

(vi) Nothing in this subsection can replace the charging standards for special types of documents stipulated by specific laws.

(7) The court shall retry the lawsuit filed by the applicant for exemption from the fees stipulated in this Law, but the court's examination of the case shall not exceed the records of the organ.

(b) When the plaintiff files a lawsuit, the U.S. District Court or the District Court of Columbia, where the plaintiff's domicile, business or institutional documents are located, has the right to prohibit the institution from blocking the records of the institution, and may order the institution to provide the plaintiff with any records of the institution that have been improperly blocked. For such cases, the court shall try again, and may privately examine the contents of the records of the organs to determine whether the records or any part thereof really fall within the exemption scope stipulated in paragraph (b) of this Law, and whether the organs should be held responsible for their actions. In addition to paying enough attention to other matters, the court should also pay enough attention to the proof of the decisions made by the agency according to paragraphs (a) (2) (c) and (b) and the reproducibility mentioned in paragraphs (a) (3) (b).

(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of the law, the defendant must reply within 30 days after receiving any complaint submitted by the plaintiff under subsection (a) of this Act, unless the court directs otherwise for just reasons.

[Repealed by Public Law 98-620]

(e) If the plaintiff substantially wins the lawsuit filed in accordance with the provisions of this Act, the court may order the United States to bear reasonable attorney's fees and other reasonable litigation costs caused by the case.

(f) When the court orders the plaintiff to submit any records of institutions that have been improperly blocked, and decides that the United States should bear reasonable attorney's fees and other litigation costs, if the court issues another written ruling indicating whether the blocking of records is arbitrary or intentional, the special lawyer must take prompt action to determine whether the officials or employees who are mainly responsible for refusing to provide documents need to take disciplinary sanctions. After investigating and considering the evidence submitted, the special lawyer must submit his own conclusions and suggestions to the administrative authorities of the relevant organs, and send a copy of the conclusions and suggestions to the responsible officials or staff or their agents. The administration should take the corrective measures recommended by the special lawyer.

In case of disobeying the court's order, the district court can punish the responsible staff for contempt of court, and punish the responsible members if it is a uniform institution.

(5) A government agency with more than one staff member shall keep the final voting record of each member at each meeting for public inspection.

(6)(A) For any document application submitted under subsection (a) (1), (2) or (3), each institution shall-

(i) To decide whether to agree to meet any such application within 20 days after receiving the application (except Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays), and immediately inform the applicant of the decision of the Bureau, the reasons for making the decision, and the right of the applicant to appeal to the Secretary of the Bureau if he is not satisfied with the decision;

(ii) The agency must make a decision within 20 days after receiving the complaint (except Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays). When making a complaint, if the original decision to refuse to provide documents is upheld in whole or in part, the organ shall inform the applicant that the decision can be applied for judicial review according to the provisions of paragraph (a) (4).

(B)(i) Under the special circumstances specified in this paragraph, the time limit specified in items (i) and (ii) of paragraph (a) may be extended, and the applicant shall be informed in writing of the reasons for the extension and the scheduled date for making the decision (generally, it shall not be extended by 65,438+00 working days, except for the circumstances mentioned in item (ii) of this paragraph).

(ii) If the agency fails to process the application within the time limit specified in paragraph (i) of the written notice extending the time limit according to paragraph (a), the agency shall inform the applicant in the written notice and provide the applicant with an opportunity to limit the application scope, so that the agency can complete the processing work within the limited time limit or provide the applicant with an opportunity to make arrangements with the agency through consultation. If the applicant does not agree to reasonably modify the application or negotiation period, the institution may regard it as one of the "special circumstances" mentioned in item (c).

(three) the "special circumstances" mentioned in this paragraph are limited to the reasonable needs of properly handling special applications, that is:

(a) the organ handling the application needs to find or collect the application documents in a place far away from the organ or other organizations;

(ii) What needs to be searched, collected and properly reviewed are different types of large documents needed by individuals;

(III) It is necessary to hold consultations as soon as possible with other organs that have significant interests in deciding the application, or there are significant jurisdictional interests between two or more constituent units within the organ, and it is necessary to hold consultations as soon as possible.

(iv) Institutions may issue regulations according to the procedures for notifying and collecting public opinions, stipulating that if institutions consider that such applications are actually applications of the same nature, such applications meet the special circumstances described in this subsection, and the documents of these applications are obviously related, they may summarize the applications submitted by one or more applicants. Various unrelated document applications are not included in the collection.

(C)(i) A person who applies for documents to any agency according to subsection (a) (1)(2) or (3) of this Act shall be deemed to have exhausted administrative remedies if the agency fails to comply with the time limit specified in this subsection. If the agency can prove that there are special circumstances, and the agency is making due efforts to meet the requirements of the applicant, the court may retain jurisdiction and allow the agency to extend the time for completing the document review. Once the organization decides to provide the required documents, the documents must be provided to the document applicant immediately. Any notice of refusal to submit an application for information according to paragraph (a) of this Law shall indicate the name, position or position of each person responsible for making the decision.

(ii) The "special circumstances" mentioned in this subsection do not include the foreseeable delay caused by the public's application for documents to the agency under this Act, unless the agency can prove that it is actively reducing the backlog of unresolved document applications.

(iii) If the document applicant does not accept the proposal of the institution to reasonably modify the application scope or arrange another time limit to process the application (or the modified application), the institution shall regard it as a "special case" considered in this paragraph.

(D)(i) Agencies may issue regulations according to the procedures of notification and collection of public opinions, stipulating that document applications should be processed in a multi-track manner, taking into account the workload or time (or both) for processing applications.

(ii) According to the regulations promulgated in this subsection, the Administration shall provide those applicants who are not suitable for multi-track processing at the fastest speed with the opportunity to limit the scope of requirements, so that the Administration can process applications more quickly.

(iii) The provisions of this subsection shall not affect the efforts made by the institutions specified in subsection (c).

(E)(i) Institutions shall issue regulations according to the procedures of notification and collection of public opinions, stipulating that applications for the following documents shall be expedited.

(i) The applicant for the document certifies that it is an urgent need;

(2) Other circumstances identified by this institution.

(ii) In addition to the provisions in (i), regulations promulgated in this subsection shall ensure that-

(1) This organ shall make a decision on whether to speed up the processing of document applications within 10 days, and notify the document applicants within this time limit; and

(two) timely remedy the administrative litigation filed by the applicant against the decision made by the organ whether to speed up the information processing.

(iii) As soon as practicable, the Administration shall process applications for expedited documents approved by the Administration in accordance with this subsection. If the applicant refuses or fails to reply to the urgent documents in time, he will be subject to judicial review according to subsection (a) and (4) of this Act, and the judgment of judicial review shall be based on the documents of the agency.

(iv) Once the administrative organ has given a complete reply to the applicant on speeding up the document processing, the U.S. District Court has no jurisdiction to examine the administrative organ's refusal to speed up the document processing.

(v) In this subsection, "urgent need" means-

(i) If the application for documents is not processed promptly, the life or personal safety of the individual may be threatened; or

(2) A document application filed by a person who is mainly engaged in disseminating information about federal government activities and emergencies to the public.

(vi) The applicant for fast document processing shall prove that his application is true and accurate through the letter of guarantee.

(f) When a document application is totally or partially rejected, the Administration shall make appropriate efforts to estimate the number of rejected document applications, and notify the document applicant of the estimate, unless providing the estimate will harm the interests exempted from protection in subsection (b).

(b) This Law does not apply to:

(1)(A) For the benefit of national defense or foreign policy, according to the standards stipulated by the executive order issued by the President, documents specially authorized to be kept confidential; (b) Documents that have actually been classified as confidential under these administrative orders;

(2) purely internal personnel rules and systems;

(3) Documents that are expressly exempted from disclosure by law (excluding Article 552b of this Law), but the law must: (a) stipulate that the way of keeping documents confidential to the public is so strict that the organs have no discretion; (b) Setting specific standards for documents that should be kept confidential, or listing specific types of documents that should be kept confidential;

(4) Business secrets and confidential business or financial information obtained from individuals;

(5) Memorandums or letters within or between organs, parties and organs other than organs that cannot be legally used in litigation;

(6) Personnel, medical files and similar files that will obviously infringe on personal privacy after disclosure;

(7) For documents or information established for law enforcement purposes, such law enforcement records or information may not be disclosed only under the following circumstances: (a) it can be reasonably expected that it will interfere with law enforcement procedures; (b) A person will be deprived of a fair trial or a fair verdict; (c) It can be reasonably expected that this will constitute an improper invasion of personal privacy; (d) Information sources that can reasonably be expected to reveal secrets, including information provided by the state, local governments, foreign institutions or agencies or any private organization on a confidential basis; And in criminal investigation, records or information compiled by criminal law enforcement organs according to secret sources, or information provided by institutions that legally carry out national security intelligence investigation through secret sources; (e) The techniques and procedures for investigating or prosecuting law enforcement may be disclosed, or the action plan for investigating or prosecuting law enforcement may be disclosed, when such disclosure can reasonably predict that legal evasion will occur; (f) Documents or information that can reasonably be expected to endanger the life or personal safety of any individual;

(8) Reports on inspections, operations or situations prepared or used by the authorities in charge of managing or supervising financial institutions;

(9) Geological and geophysical information and data about oil wells, including maps.

After deleting the part exempted from publication in this paragraph, the part of any document that can be reasonably divided shall be open to the public, and the deleted part shall be marked, unless such marking will endanger the interests exempted from protection in this paragraph. If technology permits, the number of deleted information should be indicated in the deleted part.

(c)( 1) When the application involves obtaining the records in paragraph (b) (7) (a);

(a) The investigation or handling procedure may involve a violation of criminal law, and

(b) There are sufficient reasons to believe that: (i) the object of the investigation or procedure is unaware that the procedure is in progress, and (ii) the existence of the exposure record is reasonably expected to interfere with the law enforcement procedure. During this situation, and only during this period, the Administration may consider that the provisions of this Act do not apply to these records.

(2) When a criminal law enforcement agency uses the name or personal characteristics of an informer to make records of the informer, and a third party applies for records according to the name or personal characteristics of the informer, the agency may consider that the provisions of this Law are not applicable to these records, unless the identity of the informer has been publicly recognized as an informer.

(3) When the documents applied for involve foreign spies, counterespionage or international terrorism kept by the FBI, and the existence of such records has been classified as confidential documents according to the provisions of paragraph (1) of subsection (b) of this law, the FBI may consider that the provisions of this section are not applicable to these records that are still confidential.

(d) Unless otherwise provided in this Law, this Law shall not be used as a reason to refuse or restrict the provision of records to the public, nor shall this Law allow the refusal to provide information to Congress.

(e)( 1) Each institution shall submit the annual financial report of the previous year to the U.S. Attorney General on or before February 1 every year, which shall include-

(a) The number of times that the Administration rejected documents submitted to it under subsection (a) of this Act and the reasons for each rejection;

(B)(i) the total number of complaints lodged by persons who lodged complaints under subsection (a) (6), the results of the complaints and the reasons for refusing to provide information in each case; and

(ii) According to the provisions of paragraph (b) (3), whether the court supports the interpretation of the decision of the agency to refuse to provide information with reference to such laws and regulations, and briefly introduces the scope of the agency's refusal to provide information;

(c) The number of unprocessed information applications and the average number of days of delay since September 30th of the previous year;

(d) The number of applications for processing information received by the organ and the number actually processed by the organ;

(e) The average number of days that the agency handled different types of information applications;

(f) The total amount of funds raised by the institution for processing information applications;

(g) The number of full-time staff of the Bureau who handle information applications under the Act and the total expenses for processing document applications.

(2) Each organ shall publish the report to the public through computer remote communication or other electronic means.

(3) The U.S. Attorney General shall provide reports published electronically through a single-layer electronic access system. The U.S attorney general shall notify the chairmen and senior officials of the government reform and supervision Committee of the house of representatives and the judiciary committees of the State Council and the Senate before April 1 every year, and inform them that they can obtain reports through electronic devices.

(4) The U.S. Attorney General shall, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, report the progress of the report required by this subsection before 1997 10 1 and give guidance to the reporting work. If the Minister of Justice deems it necessary, he may make supplementary requests for this report.

(5) The U.S. Attorney General shall submit an annual report on or before April 1 day of each calendar year, which shall include the number of information application cases and information exemption applications filed by the public in the previous calendar year, the handling of information exemption cases, fees and expenses, and the amount of fines paid according to items (e), (f) and (g) of paragraph (a). The report should also describe the efforts made by the Ministry of Justice to encourage institutions to comply with the law.

(f) Definitions of certain terms in this Law

(1) The "organ" defined in Article 55 1( 1) of this chapter refers to any administrative department, military department, government company, company controlled by the government, or other government agencies (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency;

(2) Information-related terms such as "documents" mentioned in this Law refer to any information in various formats (including electronic formats) that meet the requirements of this Law.

(g) According to the exemption clause in subsection (b) of this Act, the head of the institution shall prepare and publish relevant reference materials and information guides for information applicants, including-

(1) Index of major information systems owned by the government;

(2) Introduce the positioning system of all major information documents of the organization;

(3) Various types of public information guides available from this institution, which are formulated in accordance with this Act and the Act of Chapter 35 of Title 44 of the United States Code.