Information Policies of the Coronavirus Crisis : A Review of 18 EU Countries

In order to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, EU member states introduced a broad range of measures, with severe impacts on human rights to an extent unseen since World War II. Without freedom of information no democracy and rule of law can function, but it is not obvious how much policy- and lawmakers share this opinion. The present paper examines the information policies adopted by 18 EU member states in the wake of the outbreak of the pandemic, outlines the already existing and the new international freedom of information norms applicable in states of emergency and delves into the questions: what is the policy content and what are the narratives of the measures that legislative, executive and judicial branches have taken in the majority of EU member states in the field of freedom of information in the context of the pandemic? Is there any concept behind restricting access to or distributing information or are these just piecemeal ad hoc (re)actions?