Balanced Protection Of The Right To Know And The Right Of Privacy In Government Information Publicity

In the process of government information publicing, the publication of a large number government information has greatly improved the transparency of administrative actions. This kind of information publication facilitates the public to supervise our administrative authorities and their staff, and also ensures the right to know. However, huge number of privacy containing in the government information would be threaten in the process of government information publicing. Conflict between the right to know and the right of privacy is an inevitable issue in the process of government information publicing.Based on the analysis, we can find three reasons who has caused the conflict between the right to know and the right of privacy. First, the different interest represented by those two kinds of right is the radical reason who has caused the conflict between them. Second, the different arttribute of the right to know and the right of privacy has caused conflicts between different protection ways of those two kinds of right. Third, overlapping of the right content on the part of privacy in the Regulations on the Publicity of Government Information is one reason who caused the conflict between them.For our country, it's necessary to learn from overseas experience on coordinating the relationship between those two kinds of right. Sweden is the world's first country who has established a government information publicity system. Its main experience on balance protection of the right to kown and the right of privacy is to confirm the importance of the right to know and the right of privacy by constitutional documents.The government information publicity system of the United States is most influential in the world. Its main experience on balanced protection of the right to kown and the right of privacy is to protect those two rights equally. Its government information publicity legislation supply a right way for the practice of balancing the conflict between these two kinds of right. The government information publicity system of Japan is unique. Its main experience on balanced protection of the right to kown and the right of privacy is to build its government information publicity system on the base of summarizing experience of other countries.The defective legislation system and the lack of related system are main problems of our government information publicity. In order to improve the balanced protection of the right to know and the right of privacy, the main task at present is to explain the Regulations on the Publicity of Government Information so that it can be more practical. To make The Government Information Publicity Act and The Privacy Act at the right time is a necessary way to balance the right to kown and the right of privacy. To explicit some key concepts such as "individual privacy" and "public interest" in those two laws is crucial for balanced protection of the right to kown and the right of privacy. To improve the relief system of the right to kown and the right of privacy is necessary institutional protection for thoes two kinds of right.