The Ministry of Justice is seeking opinions on the draft Law on Access to Information (amended). Notably, the draft law has a chapter regulating information disclosure and requested information provision.
Accordingly, in Article 15, Chapter III of the draft law amending and supplementing regulations on citizen information not being accessible to ensure more specific, complete, clearer and consistent, synchronized with relevant legal regulations.
Accordingly, information that citizens are not allowed to access includes information belonging to state secrets according to the provisions of law on protection of state secrets. When information belonging to state secrets is declassified, citizens are allowed to access it according to the provisions of this law; Information about private life, personal secrets, family secrets according to the provisions of civil law; personal data according to the provisions of law on personal data protection.
Except for information related to private life, personal secrets are accessible if agreed upon by that person; information related to family secrets is accessible if agreed upon by family members.
Access to information belonging to personal data is carried out in accordance with the provisions of law on personal data protection.
The draft law proposes that citizens are not allowed to access business secrets in accordance with the law on intellectual property.
Citizens are also not allowed to access information that, if provided, will endanger the interests of the state, adversely affect national defense, national security, international relations, social order and safety, social ethics, and community health; causing harm to the lives or property of others.
Another content that citizens are not allowed to access is information belonging to work secrets determined by agencies and units according to the provisions of law. Information about internal meetings of agencies and units; documents drafted by agencies and units for internal affairs.
Regarding conditional access to citizen information, in addition to inheriting conditionally accessed information (business secrets, personal secrets, family secrets), the draft law supplements conditionally accessed information that is personal data and documents stored in historical records.
This is to ensure synchronization and consistency with the 2025 Law on Protection of Personal Data and the 2024 Law on Archives.
Regarding information that must be made public, the draft law amending and supplementing information must be made public to ensure synchronization with specialized laws in fields such as health, education, food safety, environment, finance, land, construction, bidding, labor...
The draft law also stipulates that in addition to information that must be widely publicized, based on actual conditions, agencies and units proactively publicize other information created or held by themselves related to public interests and community health.
The amendment of this regulation compared to the provisions of current law aims to clearly identify cases where agencies and units need to proactively publicize information related to public interests and community health.
