What’s New

  • 12 December 2007

    Information Commissioners Hold 5th International Conference in New Zealand

    Open Sessions Include NGO Participation; Commissioners Plan Future Cooperation By Kristin Adair for freedominfo.org Information commissioners, government officials, and civil society representatives from around the world met at the 5th International Conference of Information Commissioners (ICIC) in Wellington, New Zealand, November 26-29.  The four-day conference consisted of one day of closed meetings for the commissioners, […]

  • 8 November 2007

    European Ombudsman Finds Maladministration by European Commission for Failure to Produce Annual Report

    Acting on a complaint brought by the European watchdog group Statewatch, the European Ombudsman this week found maladministration by the European Commission for its failure to produce an annual report of access to documents for 2005.  The Commission had claimed that inadequate staff and other obligations made it impossible to comply with the legal obligation […]

  • 7 November 2007

    Council of Europe Committee Puts off Decision on Draft Access to Information Convention, Permits More Time for Input

    The Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Human Rights (CDDH) met today in Strasbourg to consider the draft text of a European Convention on Access to Official Documents.  Under pressure from non-governmental organizations and state representatives who have criticized the draft, the CDDH decided to put off a decision on the draft Convention to provide […]

  • 6 August 2007

    U.S. Congress Passes Freedom of Information Act Reform Bill

    The United States Senate Friday joined the House of Representatives in passing bipartisan legislation that will fix several of the most glaring problems with the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. The OPEN Government Act of 2007, authored by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), overcame a hold placed by Senator Jon Kyl (R-Az) […]

  • 20 June 2007

    In First Year, Germany’s Federal Agencies Struggle to Adapt to FOIA: But Requesters Off to Slow Start as Well

    By Thoralf Schwanitz According to the first statistics published by the German Freedom of Information Commissioner, the federal administration is still struggling to adapt to the new openness required by Germany’s Freedom of Information Act, which entered into force on January 1, 2006. The new data also show that usage of the new law has […]

  • 21 May 2007

    International FOI Advocates Protest Draft Amendments that would Weaken Bulgarian Public Information Act

    Today, members the International Freedom of Information Advocates Network sent a letter to the Bulgarian National Assembly opposing draft amendments to the Bulgarian access to information law accepted by the Assembly earlier this month. Sixty-eight organizations and individuals from 37 different countries joined the letter of protest, arguing that the proposed amendments would significantly weaken […]

  • 9 May 2007

    China Adopts First Nationwide Open Government Information Regulations

    By Jamie P. Horsley The Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information (OGI Regulations) published on April 24, 2007, and effective one year later on May 1, 2008, mark a turning point away from the deeply ingrained culture of government secrecy toward making Chinese government operations and information more transparent. (Note […]

  • 19 April 2007

    European Commission proposes reforms, seeks public input on greater access to EU documents

    The European Commission yesterday published a Green Paper and launched a new public consultation process to reform existing rules on public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission records. This action represents an important step in the European Transparency Initiative, launched in November 2005 with the goal of a “‘high level of transparency’ to ensure […]

  • 15 March 2007

    UNITED STATES: Sunshine Week 2007 brings major audit releases, congressional action on FOIA reform

    As journalists and advocates across the United States celebrated the third annual Sunshine Week, several groups released landmark audits of government openness and Congress moved forward with significant reform measures to fix the broken FOIA system. March 11: Several journalism groups published a nationwide audit based on results from individuals in 37 states who sought […]