German "Freedom of Information Act" on its way

"After the parliamentary groups of Germany's governing parties, the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, as early as August agreed on its basic outline, a Freedom of Information Bill is said to be in preparation for passage as early as next year.

only certain files deemed especially worthy of protection are to be excluded from the citizens' right in principle to access such information. All the same, the drafts of the Freedom of Information Bill have already attracted criticism from data watchdogs : The Data Protection Commissioner of the German Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein, Thilo Weichert, has critically fingered the "very broadly styled general clauses, which can be used to justify the withholding of information".

Heise online