Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Legislation protecting state secrets should be passed before the freedom of information bill is made law, or there could be complications, the government says.

In the first hearing with the House of Representatives on the information bill Tuesday, Information Minister Sofyan Djalil proposed that the deliberation of the state secrets bill should come first to prevent classified information from being released.

Sofyan said first the government should define the kind of information that could be accessed by the public. "Information on certain issues such as security and foreign policy are generally classified," he said.

Activists have called for the state secrets and information bills to be combined for reasons of efficiency but the government has rejected the idea.

"Even the president of the United States is authorized to issue regulations securing certain information from public access," Sofyan said. In the US, there were more than 140 laws restricting information, he said.

Sofyan cautioned that if the law was not written properly, it could lead to "the misuse of information for a goal that is against the law".

Political factions in the House are scheduled to present their views on the bill in a week or so before the public and business groups have their input.

Legislator Theo Sambuaga, of the House Commission I on defense, said freedom to information was guaranteed by the Constitution.

"The future law is meant to assure the principles of transparency in public policy-making and as a means for checks and balances on the system.

"It guarantees people's rights to get complete, accurate and up-to-date information from state institutions," he said.

However, the legislators also agreed that certain information needed to be kept secret for security reasons.