Politics de.indymedia
State transparency: Interior Minister wants to restrict freedom of information through the back door
The protest against the federal government's plans to restrict freedom of information is unexpectedly large. The Interior Ministry is now trying to incorporate the plans into a law on critical infrastructure
Deutsch (original) ·Auto-translated to English
The protest against the federal government's plans to restrict freedom of information is unexpectedly large. Now the Interior Ministry is trying to hide the plans in a law on critical infrastructure and thus curtail the state's information obligations.
More than 680,000 people have onehttps://weact.campact.de/petitions/spd-stoppt-den-frontalattack-auf-die...to preserve freedom of informationand signed against their restrictions by the federal government. The transparency organization FragDenStaat handed over the signatures to the SPD General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf and SPD MPs in front of the Bundestag.
At the same time, new plans to restrict freedom of information in the form of ahttps://fragdenstaat.de/documents/279100-261103-bmi-draft-transparenz-...the “Transparency Adjustment Act”known. The restrictions are hiddenhttps://fragdenstaat.de/artikel/policy/2026/11/neuer-hiddenter-attack...Question the staterecently in a law on critical infrastructure. The draft proposes to exclude numerous policy areas from the scope of the Freedom of Information Act by classifying them as “critical infrastructure”.
The Freedom of Information Act regulates that citizens, the press and civil society have access to documents from ministries and authorities - and thus transparency can be created about government actions.
According to FragDenStaat, the current draft law stipulates that information on the areas of energy, transport and traffic, finance, healthcare, water, nutrition, information technology and telecommunications no longer fall under the freedom of information.
“Safety concerns are just a pretext”
"The security concerns are just a pretext, because even under the current legislation, authorities do not have to hand over sensitive data. Dobrindt's aim is not to create more security, but rather to limit public control of politics and administration," explains Arne Semsrott, project manager and editor-in-chief at FragDenStaat, according to a press release.
There ishttps://fragdenstaat.de/artikel/ Klages/2026/10/nichte-belege/">noneEvidence or evidencethat sensitive government information was ever made public through requests under the IFG or that there were security threats. The federal government only recently had to admit this in court.
Massive protest, also critical of the SPD faction
“We have known since the coalition committee in July at the latest that transparency is a thorn in the side of the federal government and, above all, the CDU/CSU parties,” said Semsrott. Since the restrictions on the Freedom of Information Act announced at the time met with massive resistance from the population, Interior Minister Dobrindt is now trying to abolish freedom of information through the back door, Semsrott continued.
The attacks on the IFG had already sparked opposition from the Union's coalition partner in July. A position paper from the SPD parliamentary group,https://netzpolitik.org/2026/gegenwind-wird-staerker-spd-fraktion-gegen-...netzpolitik.org published the full text, largely opposed the Interior Ministry's plans.
–––
Your donation for digital freedom rights
We report on current internet policy developments, uncover scandals and initiate debates. We are completely independent. Because our fight for digital freedom rights is financed by donations from our readers.https://netzpolitik.org/spenden/?via=rss">Nowdonate.