The Disputes over Access study examines the efficiency of journalists’ Access to Information mechanisms in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and seeks to provide a basis for policy change that would lead to improved sustainability within journalism in the Baltic States.

The investigators that worked on the study employed various methods during its production, including desk research, case studies and comparative analysis. The empirical component of  the study analyzes and con-textualizes fifteen disputes between journalists and public servants over restrictions to collect information.

The study concludes that, throughout the Baltic States, Access to Information mechanisms differ in many aspects. It also discusses a range of best and questionable practices, and looks at some of the challenges that journalists and civil servants face in different countries.

The final part of the study offers country-specific policy recommendations on how to make Freedom of Information regimes function, despite an openly and increasingly confrontational information environment, and proposes a set of regional principles to help make the Access to Information mechanism more efficient.

Free Press Unlimited (FPU) has been part of the Steering Committee for the study.