-29the right of access to State-held information and the principles of transparency and disclosure of the Administration. In addition, this law did not establish a procedure for acceding to information held by the administrative entities.47 57(34) On April 18, 1994, Supreme Decree No. 423 was published in the official gazette. It created the National Public Ethics Commission, inter alia, in order to promote an informed reflection on the issue of public ethics, actively involving the different powers of the State and civil sectors. The decree emphasized the need “to modernize public administration, and to direct the performance of its functions towards fulfillment of its goals, improving the efficiency, productivity and quality of the public services provided.”48 57(35) On December 14, 1999, Act No. 19,653 concerning “Administrative probity applicable to the body of State Administration” was published in the official gazette of the Republic of Chile. Act No. 19,653 incorporated the principles of probity, transparency and disclosure and established the “right to have recourse to a professionally qualified judge of a civil court,” requesting protection of the right to request certain information in writing.49 On November 17, 2001, Decree Law 1/19,653 was published, establishing “the consolidated, coordinated and systematized text of Act No. 18,575” (supra para. 57(33)). This Act established, inter alia, that:50 (a) “The administrative acts of the body of State Administration and the documents that directly and essentially substantiate or complement them are public.” Disclosure “extends to the reports and background information that private companies offering services to the public, and the companies referred to in the third and fifth subparagraph [...] of the Limited Companies Act provide to State entities responsible for overseeing them, to the extent that this is of public interest, that its dissemination does not affect the proper functioning of the company, and that the owner of the information does not avail himself of his right to refuse access to it”; (b) If the information “is not available to the public permanently, the interested party shall have the right to request it in writing from the head of the respective service”; (c) The head of the service may refuse access to the information for the reasons established in the law, but if he refuses access for a reason other than national security or national interest, the interested party has the right to resort to a professionally qualified judge of a civil court, and an appeal against the judgment delivered by that judge can be made before the respective court of 47 Cf. Constitutional Organic Law on General Principles of State Administration No. 18,575 published in the official gazette on December 5, 1986 (file of appendixes to the brief answering the application and with observations on the requests and arguments brief, appendix 3, folio 2025 to 2134). Cf. Decree No. 423 issued by the Ministry of the Interior on April 5, 1994 (helpful evidence incorporated by the Inter-American Court, available at http://www.chiletransparente.cl/home/doc/DS423_ 1994.pdf). 48 49 Cf. Act No. 19,653 “Administrative Probity Applicable to the Body of State Administration” (file of appendixes to the application, appendix 9, folio 113). 50 Cf. Decree law No. 1/19,653 establishing the consolidated and systematized text of Act No. 18,575, Constitutional Organic Law on General Principles of State Administration (file of appendixes to the requests and arguments brief, appendix 2, folios 1128 to 1157).