On September 28, �Globe International� NGO held the public discussion on �State Secrecy and Freedom of Information� at the National Legal Centre. During the discussion more than 40 people from the General Police Department, Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs, and General staff of the Mongolian Armed force, expressed their position on the current law.

The project team member D.Orosoo, a lawyer of the National Legal Centre, held a lecture on Reform of the state secrecy legislation; G.Davaakhuu, lawyer of the Globe International held a lecture on National Security and Freedom of Information and G.Galaarid, teacher of the Culture and Cinema University, held a lecture on State Secrecy and the Present Practice.

Lawyer G. Davaakhuu informed the participants on a the significance of the media freedom and transparency and how it is reflected in domestic and International documents.

Lawyer D.Orosoo, said that due to an improper definition of the law terms, our Secrecy laws are too general. The disclosure and set up the State secrecy laws are not suited with the current period.

According to the Mr. B. Galaarid, The State Secrecy law was approved in 1995, it is unclear what kind of legal acts regulates the materials classified as a secret in the period previous to 1995. He also faced many obstacles such as being demanded high payment; requesting information included in the website, but when he went to the website the necessary information wasn�t in it; and requiring different types of approval when requesting information from the state entities.

Participants welcomed the public discussion and expressed their positions. Ms.Bayrtstetseg, from Open Society Forum said, �We should pay only direct costs such as coping the materials and we shouldn�t pay high costs for the requested information from the governmental entities, due to the fact that this information comes from the by the tax payers money.

Globe International NGO running �State Secrecy and Freedom of information� with the financial support of the US Embassy.