For two decades, the federal Freedom of Information Act (IFG) has guaranteed citizens the right to request official information from federal authorities. Now, confidential documents from the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) reveal that the planned revision goes far beyond the previously known, already highly controversial restrictions that the coalition committee recently agreed upon. An internal memo from the ministry of Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) reveals strategies that are essentially aimed at the de facto abolition of transparency rights and the targeted weakening of civil society infrastructures.
At the center of the considerations, which MDR reports on, is a new identification requirement for applicants. What at first glance appears to be a trivial bureaucratic act quickly turns out to be a targeted move against the IFG's scope. The BMI clarifies in the memo, which is several months old, what the primary goal is: to prevent platforms like FragDenStaat from continuing to function as a tool for simplified, digital inquiries. According to MDR, the paper states: “Question portals like ‘Frag den Staat’ could therefore no longer be used as ‘straw men’.”
Through the transparency platform, around 170,000 people have requested official documents with just a few clicks so far. The mandatory unique identification and the end of informal requests via email or online forms would significantly increase the barriers to access. The concern about automated queries or misuse by foreign states, on the other hand, is only mentioned as a secondary issue in the BMI paper.
