政府透明化的時代已經來臨。百年前政府保守秘密的做法在資訊時代已不再可行。資訊時代的政府必須提供資訊供民眾取用,才能使國家開放、興盛、繁榮。 公開政府記錄(records)之相關立法在民主國家極為常見;目前,全球已有超過50個國家已正式通過全面性的法律來促進政府檔案的取用(access),也有超過30個國家正朝這個方向努力。這些法律大致相同,主要都在讓人民擁有向政府機構要求資訊的權利。 我國與政府資訊公開,保障民眾取用政府資訊的相關法案則有行政程序法、行政資訊公開辦法、檔案法等可資遵行,而研考會的「政府公報資訊網」將各級政府自行發行的公報加以統整,以一致性的編排、單一的介面提供全國民眾瀏覽查詢政府公報,在在顯示政府公開透明的作為。 本文主要在介紹各國有關政府資訊公開之立法現況,說明我國相關法規與作為,同時也對該法令另是否落實,提出一些看法與建議。
Government transparency has internationally now in reality evolved to a maturity level, while government secrecy has been dissolved ever more rapidly in open societies where information sharing is vital. Any open government to function properly in information age has to make available to the general public accesses to government records, thereby accelerating the nation towards transparency, growth and prosperity. It has become a commonplace practice for democratic nations to pass into laws venues for public access to government records. There are already more than 50 nations that have legislations to promote public access to government documents; 30 some more nations are currently striving towards freedom of information goals. Freedom of information laws worldwide share the same fundamental premise: to grant individual citizens basic rights for them to access to government records. Our government in Taiwan strives to provide its individual citizens access to government records by passing several laws including Administration Procedural Law, Administration Information Transparency Acts, and File-Sharing Regulations. To update the general public, the Research-Development Committee has regularly been publishing new government records in its internet websites. The Committee organizes, disseminates, and co-ordinates the information access needs expressed by the public. The present paper aims to survey Freedom of Information legislations overseas as well as domestically in Taiwan. Moreover, this paper has its goal in coming up with suggestions on how to evaluate efficiency of pb1ic access to government records.