Explaining Grounds for Implementing the Law on Publication and Free Access to Information in Iran

Freedom of information has gained a special place since the beginning of the twenty-first century and it is known as the oxygen of democracy. In Iran, the law relating to the freedom of publication and transfer of information in 2009, while providing necessary infrastructure to respond to the need for free access to information, partially ended disputes and ambiguities. The implementation of this law can be evaluated as a fundamental revolution in administrative, executive and managerial affairs. Establishing the necessary structures and infrastructure is one of the prerequisites for the implementation of this law. Thus, explaining the grounds for the implementation of the law on publication and free access to information in Iran is the purpose of this article. This article is based on an applied research. It uses an exploratory mixed method that combines qualitative and quantitative dimensions. In the qualitative phase, the data collection was carried out using semi-structured interviews with ten of elites and experts in the field of freedom of information in order to identify the ground and to formulate hypotheses. In the quantitative phase, the data collection was done by formulating and distributing questionnaires among 115 elites to survey about the relevant priorities; and the obtained data were analyzed by coding and regression testing on the software SPSS19. As a result of data analysis, six main grounds were extracted, under the headings: legal, political, socio-cultural, technical, administrative and economic grounds. Socio-cultural grounds with the coefficient factor (0.463) was the strongest predictor variable effective on the implementation of the publication and free access to information, and then legal grounds with the coefficient factor (0.231), political grounds with the coefficient factor (0.13), economic grounds with the coefficient factor (0.11), technical grounds with the coefficient factor (0.025) and administrative grounds with the coefficient factor (0.025), are placed respectively in lower ranks. Due to the priority of culture in the implementation of the law on publishing and free access to information, it is necessary to adopt appropriate measures to strengthen this factor on the government’s agenda