Under the disclosure principle, who must disclose which information, and does it oblige a public institution to release every paper in its files?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
For this exercise, the file to read is the institution's reply to the request, which names the papers it says it holds, the copy of the document sought, and any index the institution keeps of its records. Each matters because the duty attaches to information the institution itself holds and manages, and to nothing else.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the provision as stating a duty on public institutions: information that they hold and manage must be disclosed actively, in accordance with what this Act prescribes, so that securing the public's right to know, among the stated purposes, is served.
Another reading stresses the words 'in accordance with what this Act prescribes': the principle is not a free-standing command to release everything a file contains, but disclosure on the Act's own terms, so the provision fixes who must act and why, while the rest of the Act decides what actually reaches the public.
Your judgment
Where a contractor created the paper at the institution's expense but the institution never received a copy, does the file show that the paper is held and managed by that institution?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We revisit this card if the provision or the Act's definition of public institutions is amended to widen who must disclose, or if a court decision clarifies when information counts as held and managed by an institution.