Title I General Principles Art. 1 The general principle of transparency 1. Transparency is seen as full accessibility to the data and documents held by the public administrations, for the purpose of protecting the fundamental rights of citizens, promoting the participation of any interested party in the administrative activities, and fostering widespread forms of control on the pursuance of the institutional functions and the use of public funds. 2. Transparency, without prejudice to the provisions ruling the state secret, professional secrecy, statistical secrecy and protection of personal data, contributes to the implementation of the democratic principle and the constitutional principles of equality, impartiality, smooth running, responsibility, effectiveness and efficiency in the utilization of public funds, integrity and loyalty in the service to the country. Transparency is a condition for guaranteeing individual and collective freedoms, as well as civil, political and social rights, it adds up to the right to a good administration and contributes to the realization of an open administration, at the service of citizens. 3. The provisions of this decree, as well as the rules of implementation adopted pursuant to article 48, contribute to identify the essential level of the services provided by the public administrations for the purposes of transparency, prevention, fight against corruption and bad administration, pursuant to article 117, paragraph 2, letter m) of the Italian Constitution and also constitute the exercise of the function of coordination of the data held by central, regional and local administrations from an information, statistical and IT perspective, envisaged by article 117, paragraph 2, letter r), of the Italian Constitution. Art. 2 Object 1. The provisions of this decree govern the right of whomever to freely access the data held by the public administrations and by the other subjects indicated in article 2-bis, i.e., a right that is guaranteed, without prejudice to the restrictions imposed in relation to the need to protect public and private interests that are deemed to be legally relevant, through the public access and the publications of documents, information and data concerning the organization and activities of the public administrations, and the modalities for their implementation. 2. For the purposes of this decree, "publication" means the publication on the institutional websites of the public administrations, pursuant to the specifications and technical rules set out in Annex 1, of documents, information and data concerning the organization and activities of the public administrations, in relation to which every citizen is granted a direct and straightforward access to such websites, without being identified and authenticated. Art. 2-bis (Subjective scope of application) 1. For the purposes of this decree, "public administrations" shall mean all the administrations under article 1, paragraph 2, of Legislative Decree n. 165 dated 30 March 2001, as subsequently amended, including port authorities, as well as independent administrative authorities having protection, supervisory and regulatory powers. 2. The same rules governing the public administrations under paragraph 1 shall also apply, mutatis mutandis, to: