Official secret
The official secret is a secret , which to a certain, understandable persons of officials limited. These are subject to official secrecy, i.e. H. of confidentiality . The duty of confidentiality is also subject to persons who are only assigned an office on a case-by-case basis (e.g. translators appointed by a court or experts ). The violation of official secrecy can have consequences under service law ( disciplinary proceedings ), labor law and criminal law . Official secrecy corresponding official secrecy of the employment contract parties. Special cases of official secrecy are still social secrecy and tax secrecy .
More than 110 countries, including Germany (at federal level), have introduced freedom of information laws; in many countries such regulations have already been introduced in the past 20 years. Corresponding laws on administrative transparency are planned in other countries . Such a law grants citizens a subjective right of access to official information, but this right is limited in a variety of exceptional circumstances.
Austria
In Austria official secrecy has been anchored in Article 20, Paragraph 3 of the Federal Constitutional Act since 1925 .
Austria is the last European democracy with such a confidentiality obligation in the constitution. The official secrecy is formulated as follows:
Unless otherwise stipulated by law, all organs entrusted with tasks of the federal, state and municipal administration as well as the organs of other corporations under public law are obliged to maintain secrecy about all facts that have become known to them exclusively from their official activities, the secrecy of which is in the interest of Maintaining public peace, order and security, comprehensive national defense, foreign relations, in the economic interest of a corporation under public law, in the preparation of a decision or in the overriding interest of the parties (official secrecy).
Official secrecy also applies to officials who are appointed by a general representative body - such as the Chamber of Labor and the Chamber of Commerce . Official secrecy is in conflict with the obligation to provide information for authorities in the event of a citizen request, which is laid down in Article 20, Paragraph 4 of the Federal Constitution, which is regulated in the Federal Law on Information Requirement.
Official secrecy is enshrined in the Civil Service Service Act. Civil servants and former civil servants who violate official secrecy can be punished with up to three years' imprisonment.
| 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
Discussion about abolition
For years, Austria has been in last place among 111 countries in an international assessment of the national legal situation regarding the right to information and thus has the weakest legal requirements for access to state information.
Since 2013 there has been discussion in Austria about the deletion of official secrecy from the constitution and the introduction of a basic right to access to information as well as the resolution of a freedom of information law. The discussion was particularly stimulated by the civil rights organization Forum Freedom of Information, which in a petition supported by more than 13,000 citizens called for a transparency law based on the Hamburg model .
The labor agreement of the Austrian federal government for the years 2013 to 2018, decided by the SPÖ and ÖVP , provides for the abolition of official secrecy. In the work program for 2017/2018, in which the government redefined its plans for the rest of the legislative period in January 2017, there is no longer such a reference.
In March 2014, a draft constitutional amendment went through a pre-parliamentary review and was approved by the government at the end of 2014. In November 2015, a draft for a freedom of information law was subjected to a committee review in the parliament's constitutional committee, which was agreed between the governing parties and the state governments . The draft was criticized by non-governmental organizations and journalists' organizations as being unambitious and inadequate.
Both draft bills require a two-thirds majority and remain with the constitutional committee, which dealt with the issue in October 2016 in a public expert hearing.
In June 2017, the abolition failed again.
Also a parliamentary advance of the list now in February 2019 was fought off by the parties ÖVP and FPÖ in the constitutional committee.
In June 2020, the federal government made up of the ÖVP and the Greens again discussed the abolition.
See also
Web links
- Section 353b StGB - violation of official secrecy and a special duty of confidentiality
- § 355 StGB - violation of tax secrecy
- Seminar paper on the change in official secrecy and freedom of information (PDF file; 266 kB)
Individual evidence
- ^ Access Info Europe, Center for Law and Democracy: Right to Information Rating. Retrieved January 31, 2017 .
- ↑ RIS - Federal Constitutional Law Art. 20 - Consolidated federal law, updated daily version. In: ris.bka.gv.at. Retrieved October 25, 2016 .
- ^ RIS - Civil Service Law 1979 Section 46 - Consolidated Federal Law. In: ris.bka.gv.at. Retrieved November 9, 2016 .
- ^ RIS - Criminal Code § 310 - Consolidated Federal Law, updated daily version. In: ris.bka.gv.at. Retrieved October 25, 2016 .
- ↑ Crime statistics. Statistics Austria, accessed on October 25, 2016 .
- ^ Access Info Europe, Center for Law and Democracy: Right to Information Rating. Retrieved January 31, 2017 .
- ^ Forum Freedom of Information: Transparency Act.at. Retrieved January 31, 2017 .
- ↑ Work program of the Austrian Federal Government 2013–2018. (No longer available online.) Federal Chancellery Austria, archived from the original on July 25, 2016 ; Retrieved October 25, 2016 .
- ↑ SPÖ, ÖVP: For Austria: Federal Government Work Program 2017/2018. (No longer available online.) Federal Chancellery, archived from the original on January 31, 2017 ; accessed on January 31, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ 395 dB (XXV. GP) - Federal Constitutional Law, amendment. In: parlament.gv.at. Retrieved October 25, 2016 .
- ↑ 1 / AUA (XXV. GP) - application according to Section 27 GOG regarding the Freedom of Information Act - IFG including statements. In: parlament.gv.at. Retrieved October 25, 2016 .
- ^ Official secret: "Empty promises of the government". Retrieved October 25, 2016 .
- ↑ Parliament Correspondence No. 1036/2016. In: parlament.gv.at. Austrian Parliament, accessed on October 25, 2016 .
- ↑ Abolition of official secrecy failed derstandard.at, accessed on June 30, 2017
- ↑ Parliament Correspondence No. 749/2019. In: parlament.gv.at. Austrian Parliament, July 1, 2019, accessed on July 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Edtstadler announces draft law to abolish official secrecy. In: derStandard.at . June 1, 2020, accessed June 5, 2020 .
