Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences ( 2010) Volume 2, No 1, 211-226 211 Exclusion of Private Sector from Freedom of Information Laws: Implications from a Human Rights Perspective Mazhar Siraj, Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (Islamabad, Pakistan) Abstract: Most freedom of information laws exclude the private sector from their jurisdictional purview, and apply only to information and records held by the state, subject to exemptions. A main reason for the exclusion is that the laws have evolved in the conventional human rights framework, which has long imposed obligations for human rights on the state only. A departure from this convention is now taking place with sharing of human rights responsibilities with the private sector as well. In this scenario, exclusion of the private sector from the laws has deleterious effects on transparency and integrity in public policy as well as on capability of the citizens to exercise their human rights. Because the private sector is now performing many public functions that were conventionally performed by the state, substantial amount of information held by the former is now placed out of the scope of legal regime for access to information. Therefore, extension of the regime to the private sector has become vital for advancement of the human rights agenda. 1. Introduction Freedom of information, defined as the freedom to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) 1 , has received a spectacular legislative response in the recent years. According to a global survey, nearly 70 countries had adopted comprehensive Freedom of Information Acts till June 2006 (Banisar, 2006: 6). Of these, the Acts of 19 countries apply to information held by government as well as private bodies, whereas the others 1 For an account of historical evolution of freedom of information, see Tomasevaki (1987) and Burkart and Holzner (2006).