Article 16 of the Saudi Emergency Law

This article protects the information and documents collected under the Emergency Law, providing that they are classified by force of law.

What does the rule cover? The information and documents obtained under the provisions of the law. A prominent example is what the National Emergency Management Authority obtains from public and private entities under Article 15, for the purposes of planning, preparedness, identifying risks and evaluating response and recovery plans.

What is the effect? This information is classified as classified under the Law of Penalties for Publishing and Disclosing Classified Documents and Information. This means that that law is the one to refer to for protecting this information; the article does not state its provisions or penalties.

The exception: it is not considered classified if it is available to the public; information already published or known to the public does not become classified merely because the Authority obtained it.

The importance of the article is twofold:

• It reassures entities, including private ones, that the information they provide about their facilities and risks will not be circulated without control.
• It protects sensitive information relating to critical infrastructure, whose disruption, under Article 1, leads to the emergency event or the threat of it.

Article 17 follows, requiring everyone concerned with applying the law to keep confidential what they have seen. Anyone who faces an issue relating to the disclosure of information of this kind can consult a lawyer who specializes in criminal cases.