Freedom of recipients
Freedom of recipients is the right to unhindered information from generally accessible sources. It is in the context of laws on freedom of information controlled and counts usually to the fundamental rights .
Meaning, interpretation, restrictions
In Germany, freedom of recipients is guaranteed by Article 5, Paragraph 1, Clause 1, 2nd Hs of the Basic Law ( everyone has the right ... to obtain information unhindered from generally accessible sources ). "Generally accessible" are those sources of information that are technically suitable and intended to provide information to the general public.
It protects both the receiving and the active gathering of information and is thus in a certain way the counterpart to freedom of expression , which gives people the right to publish opinions.
The freedom of recipients is a classic right of defense against the state, which is not allowed to direct, hinder or register the information of the citizens .
Like freedom of expression, freedom of recipients can only be restricted by a “general law” ( Article 5, Paragraph 2, Basic Law). Such a general law only exists if the information process itself gives rise to dangers that the restrictive law is intended to avert.
A well-known example of a restriction on the freedom of recipients is the protection of minors in Germany, through which certain media may not be made accessible to young people under the age of 18. Likewise, banking secrecy or the secrecy of the resolutions of the Federal Security Council on z. B. the sale of tanks abroad.
Controversial are blocking orders as in Germany Düsseldorf District President Jürgen Buessow , enacted in England in 2001 to force Internet providers, certain websites from abroad for their customers through a filter-based censorship infrastructure to block. Critics accuse him of violating the Basic Law.
The German Federal Constitutional Court on freedom of recipients
Freedom of recipients is often confused with freedom of expression . Freedom of recipients does not refer to the provider's freedom of expression, but rather to the consumer's ability to obtain information. It includes both the simple intake of information and the active gathering of information. Unhindered means free from legally ordered or factually imposed state severance, obstruction, control, registration and even “free from unreasonable delay”, as the Federal Constitutional Court decided in its decision in the Leipziger Volkszeitung case . Blocking certain content is therefore not constitutional.
With the judicial television ruling , the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that television broadcasts of court hearings do not fall under the freedom of viewers, since a court hearing is not a generally accessible source.
international law
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights enshrines the “right ... information and ideas of all kinds ... to obtain, receive and pass on”. The United Nations regards administrative transparency as a human right. This is recognized in practice by many countries.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal Constitutional Court, decision of the First Senate of October 3, 1969 - 1 BvR 46/65 -, BVerfGE 27, 71 .
- ↑ Spiegel online: Düsseldorf wants to, but Düsseldorf cannot 16 May 2002.
- ↑ Federal Constitutional Court, decision of the First Senate of October 3, 1969 - 1 BvR 46/65 -, BVerfGE 27, 71 .
- ↑ Federal Constitutional Court, judgment of the First Senate of January 24, 2001 - 1 BvR 2623/95 u. a. - (Court TV) , BVerfGE 103, 44 .
