President signs law “On openness of activities of the government bodies and governance”

Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan passed the law on 11 March 2014 and the Senate approved it on 10 April 2014. The document came into force on 6 May 2014.

The goal of the law is to regulate relations in openness of the activities of the state bodies and administration.

The law is directed at further improving mechanisms on implementation of the constitutional right of citizens for information on activities of the state bodies, ensure their transparency and openness, improve responsibility of the state bodies and governance and officials in adopting decision.

The main principles of openness of public bodies and administration are accessibility, timeliness and reliability of information provided, openness and transparency of their activities, freedom to seek , receive and disseminate information on activities of public authorities, rights and legitimate interests of citizens to protection against encroachments on their honor and dignity, and interference in their private lives as well as rights of citizens and legal entities to protect their reputation in provision of information about activities of public bodies and administration.

The law said that access to information on activities of the state bodies and administration can be limited if information is state secret or other protected secret, the law said.

The users of information are individuals or legal entities, searching information on activities of the state bodies and administrations.

The users of information have right to receive and disseminate reliable information on the activities of the state bodies and administrations, via official requests, refuse to receive information on the state bodies, etc.

The source of information on activities of the state bodies are official publications, speeches of officials of the state bodies, information of press services, materials at the official websites of the state bodies, etc. Other sources can be also as sources of information on activities of the states.

Information services are part of the state bodies and are responsible for preparation and dissemination of information on the activities of the organizations, providing information to mass media.

Information services adopt measures to organize coverage of the activities of the state bodies in mass media via organization of public events, disseminate information messages, place information on their websites, etc. Information services can use other methods of information dissemination.

Information on official websites of the websites of the state bodies should be placed in the state language. At the same time, the official website can have information on other language.

The information, placed on official websites of the state bodies, should have date and updated on regular bases. The websites should be updated at least once a week.