FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
[CAP. 496.
(b) a Government agency established in terms of the
Public Administration Act or any other law; and
3
Cap. 497.
(c) any body established under any law, or any partnership
or other body in which the Government of Malta, a
Government agency or any such body as aforesaid has
a controlling interest or over which it has effective
control;
"relevant public authority" means a public authority other than
those mentioned in article 5;
"Tribunal" means the Information and Data Protection Appeals
Tribunal established under article 48 of the Data Protection Act.
Cap. 440.
3.
Any eligible person has a right of access to documents held
by public authorities in accordance with and subject to the
provisions of this Act.
Right of access to
official documents.
4.
Nothing in this Act shall be construed as preventing public
authorities from publishing or granting access to documents
(including exempt documents) otherwise than as required by this
Act.
Access to
documents other
than through this
Act.
5. (1) Subject to subarticle (2), this Act shall not apply to
documents that -
Application of this
Act.
(a) are held by a Local Council and are accordingly
subject to article 45 of the Local Councils Act;
(b) are subject to the Freedom of Access to Information on
the Environment Regulations or to any other
regulations made under the Environment Protection
Act and providing for freedom of access to
information;
(c) have been transferred to the National Archives in
accordance with the National Archives Act;
Cap. 363.
S.L. 504.65
Cap. 435.
Cap. 477.
(d) are accessible to the public under any other law;
(e) are available for purchase by the public in accordance
with arrangements made by a public authority; or
(f)
are held by a commercial partnership in which the
Government or another public authority has a
controlling interest, in so far as the documents in
question relate to the commercial activities of the
commercial partnership.
(2) This Act shall apply to documents to which subarticle (1)
refers only in so far as may be provided for by any law governing
access to such documents.
(3) This Act shall not apply to documents in so far as such
documents contain (a) personal data subject to the Data Protection Act; or
(b) information the disclosure of which is prohibited by
any other law:
Provided that where it is possible to release a document
with such data or information deleted, this shall be done in
Cap. 440.