The International Telecommunication Union “places heavy restrictions on access to a staggering range of documents,” according to a new report by Article 19, the London-based freedom of expression group.
“Not only is civil society directly and indirectly barred from participating in the ITU’s decision-making, it is nearly impossible to discern how these decisions are being made from the outside,” says a summary of the Nov. 26 report.
The ITU is a specialized UN agency that addresses aspects of transnational telecommunication infrastructure. It adopted an access to information policy in 2016 that Article 19 says has some good qualities, but needs a major overhaul.
One “significant” gap, Article 19 states, prevents the public from seeing “input and working documents related to the development of standards, manuals, and guidelines—effectively, ITU’s core body of work.”
Another weakness in the ITU policy allows those who submit information, including member governments, absolute control over what gets released.
Article 19 also objects that the policy restricts access to any commercial and financial information that “would harm either the financial interests of the ITU or members of ITU.” The critique states, “However, the threat to the financial interests of a company or government is not in itself a sufficient challenge to people’s right to know. Even when there’s a potential for harm, it must still be weighed appropriately against the benefit that disclosure would bring to the public interest on matters such as corruption or conflict of interest.”
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Three out of five UN agencies, including the UN Secretariat, have no policies on access to information, according to a 2018 eyeonglobaltransparency.net survey.
