1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Right to be Informed

Information on the environment is crucial for its protection and improvement. Principle 1 of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human development says: "Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations." (Stockholm Declaration 1972). In order to assume this responsibility, it is very important that people know what exactly is happening in the environment, why it is happening, and what they can do about it. In other words, they have to be informed and educated. This relates not only to environmental experts and decision-makers, but to all people. Only in this way can they become environmentally aware and change their attitude towards the environment, which will facilitate public participation and enable them to really do something to improve the quality of life.

The right to be informed has been recognized by all large environmental conferences after Stockholm. Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development guarantees the access to environmental information to all, and states the responsibility of all states to provide this access to information they posses (Rio Declaration 1992). Agenda 21, Chapter 36 deals with the role of education in raising of awareness and public participation. It also stresses that the present lack of awareness is a consequence of inappropriate information accessibility (Robinson 1993). In the Preamble of the 1998 Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, the access to information is recognized as the main prerequisite for public participation and raising of awareness on environmental matters (Aarhus Convention 1998).