Germany to restrict access to public information under IFG reform

The coalition government of CDU/CSU and SPD has introduced a measure in its “Bureaucracy reduction” package to amend the Information Freedom Act (IFG). The draft proposes to limit the right to request official documents to natural persons with a “legitimate interest”, potentially confining eligibility to residents of Germany or EU citizens. It would also allow broader exemptions for areas such as critical infrastructure, espionage, terrorism prevention and scientific research, and would increase redaction of civil‑service employee names. Fees for requests would be aligned with a cost‑recovery principle.

Critics say the changes would undermine press freedom and civil‑society oversight. Media organisations such as the Association of Free Press and the Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers Association warn that journalists and NGOs would lose a key tool for investigations. Citizen‑rights activist Katharina Nocun of LobbyControl compared the proposal to authoritarian measures, while the left party described it as an “attack on press freedom”. The debate centres on balancing security concerns with democratic transparency.