Constitutional Right to Truth? How to Protect the Right to Information and the Right to Privacy Today (Marcin Kilanowski)

ABSTRACT
International law refers to the right to truth. A similar right exists on the national level – the right to information. However, the right to information may get into conflict with the right to privacy. While legislators and courts were trying to find a proper balance between access to true information and protection of privacy they started to be challenged with the development of new technologies. The information and data obtained by tech companies, political parties and governments became means for developing disinformation and “fake news”, serving the economic or political interests of these entities on the national or international ground. There is disturbing evidence of activities undertaken by the mentioned actors in various political campaigns dating from around 2010, including the use of hacking, disinformation, and voter suppression. We should ask whether in democratic societies we can still defend the idea of reaching for the truth, of gaining information and knowledge while respecting the right to privacy and the right to freedom. A positive answer should indicate what conditions should be created to make this possible and at the same time address the proposal that we need a new right, even a constitutional right – the “right to truth”.

BIO
Marcin Kilanowski is Professor of law at Nicolas Copernicus University. Previously, he was a postdoc at the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Social Research at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, the Social Science Center in Berlin and the Economics Department at Harvard University. Kilanowski also worked as a law tutor at Harvard College, a docent at the Institute of Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School and as a Visiting Professor at Sciences Po teaching global governance, human rights and constitutional law. Kilanowski advised various Polish government institutions including the Office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Development, and the Ministry of Economy's Working Group on Corporate Social Responsibility. He also served as a member of the UN Global Compact Scientific Council.