Latvia to ease restrictions on state secrets

Oct 31, 2008
TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

RIGA – The Latvian parliament has thrown its support behind amendments submitted by the Cabinet that would ease the criteria for what constitutes a state secret.

According to the bill, criteria for defining the level of information secrecy, stating that information, which has been "Very Secret" now will be "Secret." This would include information about deteriorating relations between countries resulting in interrupted economic relations on economic sanctions imposed on Latvia.

The category "Very Secret" would refer to significant state scientific or technological inventions.

The bill also provides stricter criteria for assigning category "Confidential," aligning it with the definition of information "For Business Needs" planned in the new information publicity bill.

State Chancery legal department representative Andris Lacis said that the aim of the amendments is to prevent the current problems in relation with circulation of information. He said that so far some information has ungroundedly been assigned the status of confidentiality which made access to it more difficult, laying obstacles to efficient organization of work in state administration institutions.

The amendments should come into force from January 2009.

Parliament has so far only approved the bill in principle, however, and will still have to hold an official vote on whether to pass the amendments into law.

The bill will be submitted to the parliament along with the new information publicity bill and amendments to the National Security Law.

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