House Bill 57: The Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) (Revised III)
Author(s): Originally by Sir Salibaic and His Imperial Majesty Renegalle
Purpose: In order to provide the public with the right to request access to records from any governmental authority and to require those authorities to disclose any information requested under the FoIA, within reason.
Article 1: Government Authorities
1. A Government Authority shall be defined under this act as: “Any authority which has a legal mandate to govern or administrate an aspect of public life inside the Union of Force and its Territories.”
2. Government Authorities included in this act.
2.1. Any Federal Ministry or Executive Committee.
2.2. The House of Representatives of the Union of Force and its Territories.
2.3. The High Court of the Union of Force and its Territories.
2.4. The High Commission.
2.5. Any Territorial Authority.
2.6. Any Federal Governmental Programs.
2.7. Any Territorial Governmental Programs.
2.8. Any other Government Authority not mentioned herein with the exclusion of the Union Federal Cabinet of Force
Article 2: Right to a Request for Information
1. All Union citizens have the right to request information from any Government Authority as listed in this act.
Article 3: FoIA Request Process
1. In order to request access to information under FoIA, a citizen shall file a FoIA Request to the relative Government Authority.
1.1. A request must be made using the following format:
Name: [Name of the Nation Requesting]
Contact Information: [A Discord Tag, or Link to Nation Requesting]
Request: [A detailed description of the information you want - for example, you might want all information held on a subject, or just a summary, or a Document held by a Government Authority.]
2. After a FoIA Request has been made, the relative Government Authority shall have up to 5 days to determine whether or not the information requested is too sensitive to release, at which point they will have 48 hours to release the relevant information if the request is approved.
2.1. If the request is deemed too sensitive, the relevant Government Authority must give a detailed explanation as to why. However, personal information shall not require an in-depth explanation. In the case of a document, the Government Authority may choose to redact sensitive information, giving a detailed explanation for why each passage was redacted and clearly marking where information has been redacted.
3. In the event that a request is denied as detailed in §3.2:2.1, an appeal may be made.
3.1. The appeal shall go before the Founder.
3.2. The Information shall be presented to the Founder as well as the reasoning is given. The Founder will then issue a decision as to whether information should be made public.
3.3. If the appeal succeeds, then the information requested shall be issued.
3.4. If the appeal fails then a new request may not be made for two weeks after for the same information.
Article 4: Government Logs and Updates
1. All ministers, as defined in the Constitution, shall be mandated to publish a public update on their fulfilment of duties every month.
1.1. The update must contain: what has been completed, what is currently being worked on, what remains to be done, and a summary.
1.2. Failure to perform these duties within 1 week of month passing shall be considered nonfeasance.
Article 5: FoIA Request Logs
1. The Minister of Internal Affairs must keep a record of all FoIA Requests in a publicly accessible location.
