Tuesday, April 14, 2009

'Public Data Our Data' for complete, reliable and useful information for the Greek Citizens

Liberal Alliance press release 11 September 2008

Liberal Alliance (Greek Liberals) support the citizen's initiative for free access to Public Data, ' Public Data Our Data' (or 4Ds from the acronym of the Greek phrase).

It is commonly accepted that there is lack of transparency in Greece with incidents of plundering of public property, be they taxpayer's money or state owned assets, are part of everyday life.

The Citizen's initiative 4Ds brings hope of defiance and responsibility in this malign climate.

Liberal Alliance supports the 4Ds initiative and believes that citizen's access to public data, responds to the need for transparency, eases and promotes research and innovation and can lead to services that can better suit the citizens, encourages bottom-up activities and finally provides an effective check on the authorities.

The Greek Government has disregarded for decades the citizen's right to access public information whilst has constantly attempted to acquire citizens' private information, violating their right to privacy.

Greek Government's attitude to consider the Greek Citizens its ' subjects', violates a number of international guidelines and EU Directives such as Directive 2003/98/EK-Use of Public Sector Data. Everybody is convinced that the Government withholds information about its activities and this makes any Government's statement been seen as totally unreliable, aiming at the deceit of the Greek Citizens and/or European Union.

Liberal Alliance believes the State does not have a legitimate entitlement to receive money from the taxpayer or manage a public asset, unless, it provides a detailed account of its activities and the use of the taxes.

Such accounts when published must be accompanied by the appraisal of an independent authority on matters of Data Accuracy and the value of money that was accomplished.

However it is in this context that Liberal Alliance points out that any initiative demanding free access to information will not achieve its desired goals. If it is not accompanied by radical reform of the Government's role so that public information will not only be accessible but also complete, reliably and truly useful for its citizens.

Liberal Alliance's manifesto proposes all the necessary measures for the above purpose.

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