After a two-year suspension, the 2008 Freedom of Information Law will start to take effect Friday. Are public institutions, including the government and state enterprises, ready to implement the law? And how would the public access information from public institutions? The Jakarta Post’s Ridwan Max Sijabat delves into the issues in the following articles.

Free access: A student visits depkominfo.go.id in search of information on broadcasting regulations from the Communications and Information Technology Ministry, on Tuesday in Jakarta. According to the 2008 Law on Freedom of Information, which comes into effect as of Friday (tomorrow), every citizen has the right to obtain quick, accurate and cheap information (with some exceptions), from all public institutions, ministries, government agencies, state enterprises, judicial institutions and political parties. JP/Nurhayati

A hallmark of Indonesia’s reform journey was the passing of the 2008 Freedom of Information Law after years of procrastinating. The underlying challenge was the radical, necessary change of the national mind-set formed under the New Order: there has always been freedom to access information, but only that which the state is kind enough to give.