Right to Information and Communication between Government and Citizens: Identifying Continuities and Discontinuities in the Practices of Turkey at the 10th Anniversary of the Law on Right to Information

The right to information as a form of right to petition is one of the cornerstones in the formation of the modern constitutional state and has important ties with the freedom of thought and expression as well as citizens’ right to ask their administration to be accountable.In Turkey, the practices related with the right to information, as the instrument of making the acts and actions of the government “public”, came to the agenda on the eve of 2000s, became part of the national legislation, and as of 2015, we commemorated its 10th anniversary.In the article, the right to information practices will be analyzed by considering the first ten-year period of the practices in Turkey, and also regarding the worldwide experiences and discussions around the issue. The main aim of the study is to elaborate certain practices of the right to information, regulated in the legislation related with the Right to Information in Turkey, and problems encountered in the application process. Also this article will focus on the applications to the Council of Cassation of Right to Information in Turkey since this Council, like European Ombudsman, is the final authority to review the decisions related with partial or full refusal of the access to the information and documents. The last part of the article is reserved for the evaluations and recommendations on how the practices of right to information contributes to the interaction between citizens and the government and to revive public sphere in the case of Turkey.