Practical guidelines for the compliance of the Act

     Information that is prohibited for disclosure by the State agency/ State official or is e In principle, any official information must be disclosed to public. However, certain information may not be disclosed. The Act specifically prescribes that certain information may not be disclosed by or may be subject to the non-disclosure order of the State agency/ State official:

1. Information that is subject to non-disclosure

     Information that is subject to non-disclosure restriction includes the official information which may jeopardize the Royal Institution. The State agency or the State official shall not disclose the information of this nature without any exception (Section 14 of the Act);

2. Information that may be subject to the non-disclosure

     Information that may be subject to the non-disclosure order. Section 15 paragraph 1 (1)-(7) of the Act specifically prescribes that certain information shall be subject to non-disclosure order or must be reserved and yet to be disclosed. Information under this item 2 shall be subject to the discretion of the State agency/ State official. Information of this nature includes:

     2.1 the disclosure of information which will jeopardize the national security, international relations, or national economic or financial security (Section 15 (1)):

           3 specific elements of information under Section 15 (1) are as follows:

           (1) the disclosure of information which will jeopardize the national security, such as national defence plan, terrorist investigation report, etc.
           (2) the disclosure of information which will jeopardize the international relations, such as information relating to the internal public administration of any foreign country. Such disclosure (if any) shall be considered an intervention of the internal affairs of the foreign country; or

            (3) the disclosure of information which will jeopardize the national economic or financial security, such as any information relating to the regulations or strategies in foreign exchange management with the aim to preserve the stability of foreign exchange or the economic, etc. Such disclosure of information might have caused the seeking of profit from the foreign exchange transaction which might have jeopardized the stability of the economic as a whole.

     2.2 The disclosure of such information will result in the decline in the efficiency of law enforcement or failure to achieve its objectives, whether or not it is related to litigation, protection, suppression, verification, inspection, or knowledge of the source of the information (Section 15 (2)):

           The Information under this item emphasizes on the disclosure of information which shall result in the declination of the efficiency of law enforcement once a disclosure is made. Since the State agency/ State official are the direct operators by virtue of their duties under the provisions of laws. Therefore, if the disclosure of information would cause the law enforcement to be inefficient, it shall consequently result in the operation of the State agencies of the government. By this Section, the Act empowers the State agency/ the State official to issue an order not to disclose information. The law does not specifically provide any particular matter for which it would affect the efficiency of the law enforcement, it could have been any legal action, prevention, dispersal, test, inspection or any matter relating to the sources of information, for example, the information in relation to the investigation for disciplinary action or any unfinished fact-findings, etc.

     2.3 An opinion or advice given within the State agency with regard to the performance of any act, not including a technical report, fact report or information relied on for giving opinion or recommendation internally (Section 15 (3):

           The law provides that the State official may use its own discretion whether or not to issue an order to disclosure of information taking into account various factors in different levels within the State agency. Incidentally, the information that may not be disclosed must be part of the opinion and should not include any factual information such as academic report or fact-findings report, etc.

     2.4 The disclosure of such information will endanger the life or safety of any person (Section 15 (4)):

           Life or safety of a person is one of the most fundamental matters in any society. The law empowers the State agency/ State official to issue an order not to disclose information that will endanger the life or safety of any person, such as information relating to the investigation on any witness or any claimant on any corruption or misbehaviour, the disclosure of which might endanger the life and safety of the witnesses, etc.

     2.5 A medical report or personal information the disclosure of which will unreasonably encroach upon the right of privacy (Section 15(5):

              Information relating to medical report (medical background or health report) is considered a personal information where medical doctors shall not disclose such information to any third party. Such personal information may be kept with the personal information system of any State agency such as work experience and background of the official or such personal information may be kept together with the official information. If the State official considers that the disclosure of such information may infringe the personal privacy, the State official may issue an order not to disclose such information

     2.6 An official information protected by law against disclosure or an information given by a person and intended to be kept undisclosed Section 15 (6):

           Information under this item 2.6 can be classified into 2 categories as follows:
           Information protected by law for non-disclosure. This is the case where the State agencies may be subject to the governing law on their operation. For example, Section 10 of the Revenue Code provides for the non-disclosure of information relating to the business of any tax payers except for the disclosure to the court or the official having jurisdiction over such matter. The owner providing information who does not wish his information to be disclosed can request the State agency in control of such information in writing not to disclose his information. Some of the information relating to clue on misconduct or corruption or any narcotics crime given by any particular person, the name of such person should not be disclosed.

     2.7 Other cases as prescribed in the Royal Decree (Section 15 (7)):

           Information under this item 2.7 is the information which the Board considers that the State agency/ State official should have issued a non-disclosure of information which should coincide with the national security plan or the safety of the people or the interest of the people as a whole. The type of the information should be published in the Royal Decree.