However, absolute freedom of information cannot be achieved easily, it faces many challenges. As the right to information is a fairly new theory that has been introduced to a number of countries, the citizens know little about the use of the right. For instance, according to a survey in Bangladesh, most people related “The Right to Information Act” to media only (Sobhan, 2010). Lack of dissemination also contributes to the unawareness of the right to information (Sobhan, 2010). Bangladesh was one of the colonies of western countries, it is difficult for its people to realise their right to access information from public bodies, because they used to be subservient to the government for a long time. People need to be educated to use this right, and build public awareness of functioning democratic society (Sobhan, 2010). In addition, the censorship is a serious intervention to freedom of information. Shifting a closed government to a transparency government is a great challenge to countries (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 2010). In China, the information published through different kinds of media need to be all checked by the government (Censorship and freedom, n.d.). It is also widely known that China has banned websites, like Google, the amount of information are limited to Chinese people (Censorship and freedom, n.d.). This is a practice of restricting the right to information.
The right to information regulations is becoming common world widely, people are now able to access “searchable government records” by using advanced information technologies. (Banisar, 2011). Nevertheless, there are also several limitations of the right to information. In order to respect other rights, governments should withhold access to information (Are there any, n.d.). For example, the military movement, ongoing criminal enquiry, weapon purchasing and so on. Besides, conflicts in the right to information and the right to privacy have arisen. The government has held a number of private information about individuals secretly; an agreement was made in Hungary, it said that individual criminal charges would only provide individual initials in the court to protect privacy (Banisar, 2011). Withholding such court records can sometimes help individuals have a new start in their lives; yet, in a certain countries, such as Australia, the known sex offenders list is viewed as public information so as to enhance children and women’s vigilances (Banisar, 2011). There are also some other examples, in 2008, the New Zealand Law Commission (NZLC) suggested the law to limit access to information in public registers, say, birth register, lists of license holders, et cerate (NZLC, 2008). It is difficult to balance the right to information and the right to privacy, it is the governments’ responsibility to manage the legal access to information.
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