On The Right To Know As The Constitutional Right

The constitutional rights are also called the fundamental rights, they can not beviolated or deprived by anyone in any way. Although the right to know has beenwidely recognized as a constitutional right in the world, there is no definite andtimely domestic legislation for the acknowledgement and protection in China. Theright to know is the cornerstone of the foundation for the modern democratic and theinformation society, is the basis and core to fully realize the citizens’ rights, is also animportant means for citizens to protect their own interests and to realize their ownvalue. China is a socialist country where people became their own masters, the mainpremise of which is that the citizens enjoy the right to know, or to be the maserswould just indulge in empty talk. Our country is at the immaturely primary stage ofsocialism, where the social conflicts occur frequently. If there is no right to know, andthe citizens have no idea about the related information, they would not be able tomake the corresponding judgment and lose the sense of security. The process of thegeneration and development of right to know is less than one hundred years of time,but the emergence of it’s germ is quite a long course. After the19th century, someGerman ideologists put forward the theory "making the national behaviors public";and after the World War II, the right to know theory has been developed rapidly in theUnited States, the Associated Press Editor Kent Cooper formally proposed "the Rightto Know ", noting that if a country does not respect the right to know, there will be nopolitical freedom.In the period of China social transformation, all kinds of conflicts take placefrequently. Under the catalysis of a series of food safety incidents, and under thesituation that the citizens’ lives and health are violated, the whole country are payingmore and more attention to the right to know. We have made great progress both inthe theoretical research and in the social practice. Relevant state organs no longerholding related information not to let go, and many terms of the laws and regulationsalso focus on the protection of the right to know, however, a clear confirmation of theright to know has not occurred, and these incomplete terms are far from being able to guarantee the realization of the right to know.China is committed to keep pace with the global integration process. With thedevelopment of the democracy and the society governed by law, the right to knowwill be regarded as a constitutional right to be protected by more countries. Theglobalization requires us to keep abreast with the trend of The Times, make greatefforts to integrate with the international community and endow the right to know aconstitutional status, which gives the constitutional protection to the citizens’ right toknow.In order to make the right to know obtain a proper legal status and play its properrole in all aspects of social life as soon as possible, this paper elaborated describesfrom the basic aspects such as the concept, the attribute and the type of the right toknow. Combined with the China’s current situation, the practical significance, thetheoretical basis, the necessity and the urgency of the constitution’s affirmation to theright to know are discussed.Heretofore，no matter the generalized or the narrowly defined right to know, aredifficult accurately to elaborate the concept of right to know. Therefore, from theauthor’s point of view, the right to know should be defined as the right enjoyed by thecitizens, artificial person and other organizations to learn and obtain the informationinvolving the public interests which mastered and should be mastered by the stateorgans and non-state organs. The right subjects of the right to know encompassindividuals, legal person and other organizations, and the obligation subjects includenot only the state organs but also the non-state organs. The performing of the right toknow should not harm the legal rights of the state, the collective and other citizens.As the right to know and the freedom of expression are not mutually inclusive, ourconstitution can not protect the right to know by providing freedom of speech and thepress. Instead, the right to know should be explicitly listed as a protected object bythe constitution.The right to know has the characteristics of nature essence, historicality,realizability and functionality. Although it meets the conditions of being listed in theconstitution, the right to know is still a right not enumerated by the constitution. Theright to know is a compound constitutional right of the liberty, the suffrage and the social rights. First of all, as called "freedom without State interference", the right toknow has the property of the right of freedom, which is mainly reflected in thefreedom of the right subjects, Secondly, the right to know is also known as " freedomof caring given by the State", so it has the property of the social rights, which ismainly shown at the obligation of the duty subjects. Again, the right to know is anecessary precondition for citizens to participate in democratic politics, and itcomplies with the content and the form of suffrage rights, as a result, the right toknow possesses the characteristics of the suffrage rights.There are limits for the right to know to be a constitutional right and it can’t beextended to any field. The principle to the limits is that not to harm the legitimaterights of the state, the collective and other citizens.As an inevitable trend of the historical development, the constitution’saffirmation to the right to know satisfies the requirements of the democracy and thegovernment by law. In order to protect the realization of the citizens, artificial personand other organizations’ the right to know, we should make a clear definition for thisright in the constitution.