The Freedom of Information Act in the United States was a relatively rare access-to-information, or ATI, statute when passed in 1966, but it inspired many similar statutes in nations around the world. This article conducts a comparative study focused on Central Europe, with Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic selected as nations that illustrate ATI philosophy and enforcement in that region. These nations have important similarities but also interesting differences caused by current political trends and local concerns that make each unique in its own right. Ultimately, this study seeks to determine whether these nations have adopted not just the text but also the spirit of transparency embodied in FOIA, with a particular focus on that region’s much different legal and political structures as compared to the United States and Western Europe.

中文翻译：

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穿越多瑙河：中欧和美洲信息获取法的比较研究

1966年，美国颁布的《信息自由法》是一项相对罕见的信息获取法，即ATI，但它启发了世界上许多国家的类似法规。本文进行了针对中欧的比较研究，选择了波兰，匈牙利和捷克共和国作为说明该地区ATI理念和执法的国家。这些国家既有重要的相似之处，又有有趣的差异，这是由当前的政治趋势和地方关注引起的，这使得每个国家都具有自己的独特性。最终，本研究旨在确定这些国家是否不仅采用了文本，还采用了FOIA中体现的透明精神，特别关注与美国和西欧相比该地区的法律和政治结构截然不同。