Our Modern society develops very rapidly. More and more information is being accumulated and more and more information is being interlinked. Linked information, however, is knowledge, and knowledge is power, as the saying goes. Hence, if the access to knowledge is restricted to a small circle of benefactors, there is an unavoidable development of power structures which put individual persons, social organizations or government organs at an advantage and thereby jeopardize the democratic process in a free society. The democratic process is based on broad participation of all citizens in the design and supervision of social processes; it is therefore incompatible with information advantages, which individuals are trying to gain, to the detriment of society. Transparency of administrative and political processes on all levels of government is therefore a fundamental civil right. It must be guaranteed, protected and enforced to support our free democratic order.
The current situation in Germany is determined by a large number of different regulations on all levels and in all areas of government activity. Little has been changed to facilitate a shift from the “principle of secrecy towards the principle of public disclosure, even though public disclosure is characteristic of the agenda for a modern 21st century society, also with regard to the many opportunities offered by new forms of media. Administrators and politicians must finally recognize that they are public service providers and ensure transparency, based on efficient, easy and low-cost access to information for all citizens.
It is crucial, particularly for the evaluation of political decision-makers, to ensure transparent access to the bases for political decisions. Two negative examples: the fact that the highway toll agreement is concealed from the sovereign - i.e. the people - and their elected representatives and the undemocratic introduction of voting machines, which have the potential to damage the electoral process, which is the primary element of any democracy. In this sense, the Pirate Party wants to work towards the transparency of all government processes and hence demands:
Every citizen, whether affected or not and without need to provide a justification, has the right to gain access to files on all levels of government and to the information available to the respective public authorities. This applies to written records as well as to digital mediums or other types of mediums.
This right is limited by the regulations for the protection of personal rights, national security, crime prevention and similar concerns. These exceptions must be formulated as precisely and unambiguously as possible and may not leave out entire agencies or administrative areas.
The information agency is required provide access to records or copies promptly and with a clear cost structure, to enable widespread, efficient use of the data.
The denial of access must be justified in writing. The applicant and the affected third parties can invoke a court to check the denial and the public authority must give the court full access to the information.
The public authorities are required to regularly publish organizational descriptions and task descriptions, including overviews of the types of records that can be accessed, as well as an annual public report about the treatment of the right to information.
Taking into consideration the enormous possibilities that occur with the quick development and dissemination of new media, there are various approaches for taking these basic demands into account. Government authorities should strongly promote the use of free software, set up automatic publication of appropriate records and establish the cheapest and least complex form of digital access.
The renunciation of the “principle of secrecy” the administrative and political concept of a completely outdated concept of state and the promotion of the “principle of publicity,” with responsible citizens as the basis for government activity and planning – the Pirate Party is convinced that these principles are the crucial prerequisites for a modern knowledge society with a free, democratic order.
The Pirate Party supports compulsory identification for police officers. Officers on duty during public assemblies must be required to wear identification which is clearly distinguishable, even from a distance. This identification must be in the form of a pseudonym (a number, for example) and may change from deployment to deployment.
It must be possible to identify a person by their identification at any time after the deployment, given an official court order. The senior officer is responsible for the effective enforcement of the identification requirements and for the correct keeping of the records for the assignment of identification to persons.
Police officers must be legally required to prevent breaches by other police officers or, if not possible, to report and identify the respective officer or officers. Violations of these duties (wearing identification, correct maintenance of the assignment list, prevention/reporting of breaches) must be punishable under criminal law.