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the physical base of the state on such a scale as to cause a serious threat to state
institutions.
17
Those threats caused by nature, such as hurricanes, floods, droughts,
wars, epidemics, affect the security of a particular individual, and at the same time
they affect the security of the whole state, similarly as sabotage, terrorism, war and
criminality.
18
Therefore it can be concluded that the accessibility of the information about the
possible threats in any of the aforementioned key sectors affecting national security
is very significant and may increase the security of the members of society, because
only a person possessing such information may take decisions allowing to increase
the level of his or her safety. Furthermore, such possession of information by the state
may also enable it to take appropriate measures ensuring national security.
1.2 The Human Rights Dimension of the Right to Information
about the Environment
Recently, international human rights law and jurisprudence has shifted towards
acknowledging a separate right to governmental information. As M. McDonagh
states, the right to information is established in a growing number of constitutions
and domestic legal acts.
19
Furthermore, international universal and regional human
rights bodies are more apt to acknowledge such a right in the context of other rights.
“While the recognition of a right to information in international human rights law
was also slow to evolve, international human rights bodies such as the UN Human
Rights Committee, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights and the European Committee on Social Rights have
today accepted the existence of a right to information in certain circumstances.”
20
T. Mendel, having carried out research of information laws in all the countries of the
world, states that “There has been a veritable revolution in recent years in terms of the
right to information, commonly understood as the right to access information held
by public bodies. Whereas in 1990 only 13 countries had adopted national right to
information laws, upwards of 70 such laws have now been adopted globally, and they
are under active consideration in another 20-30 countries.”
21
The right to information is developed in the context of other rights. The right
closely related to the right to information is freedom of expression. The founding
argument for including the right to information under this freedom is that the
right to information is a pre-condition of the full exercise of the above mentioned
17
BUZAN (supra n 9) 52-53.
18
VAREIKIS (supra n 8) 13.
19
MAEVE MCDONAGH, ‘The Right to Information in International Human Rights Law’ (2013)
H.R.L.Rev.
13(1) 25, 25-26.
20
Ibid
., 28.
21
TOBY MENDEL,
Freedom of Information: A Comparative Legal Survey
(2nd edition, UNESCO: Paris,
2008) 3.