Warsaw, 18 May 2011

(by Ton Zijlstra)

In a meeting with NGO's, entrepreneurs, bloggers and internet industry, Polish Prime Minister Tusk discussed the reuse of public information, blocking web sites in relation to cyber crime, retention of telecommunications data, and regulations for internet media. The session was live streamed on the Prime Minister's website. A press release on the meeting is available.

The Prime Minister referring to a decision on May 17 concerning the law on re-use and processing of public information, said that everything that is deemed public information will be made fully available for access and reuse by default. "That which is created with public money is in the public domain, and therefore also for those who want to use it in any manner chosen by them", said Donald Tusk. These words however don't seem to completely cover the May 17 decision, which is said to leave plenty room for PSB's to decide on charging for access for reuse.

The Prime Minister did also stress that it is needed to precisely define which information should not be available, and make sure it is a very strictly defined category. "However, everything that is public information should be readily accessible and easy to process" he explained.

A new meeting on these topics with NGO's, bloggers and others is scheduled for the end of June. One of the NGO's that participated provided a write-up of the meeting, hailing the PM's words as a breakthrough. The video of the meeting is also available.