National freedom of information laws exist in 80 countries, according to a new list issued by Dutch FOI analyst and publisher Roger Vleugels.
Two countries — Indonesia and Russia – were added to his “A-list,” but four dropped off — Argentina, Kazakhstan, Spain and Saint Vincent & Grenadines.
To make the A-list, a law must provide “a right of access, with complaint and appeal possibilities [decrees are included if they have true complaint and appeal possibilities],” according to Vleugels. He noted, “So in this list are also very poor FOIAs, like those of for instance Italy and Zimbabwe.”
“A second important part of the definition, and in line with the practitioners point of view, is that the FOIA must be in power for at least the executive part of the trias politica.” Vluegels wrote. He said, “I would like to add more ingredients to the definition but there is no consensus about that.”
Vleugels also for the first time attempted to tally sub-national FOI laws, coming up with a list with 184 entries.
For 27 of the 80 countries, the FOI law came into power between 1766 and 2000. Since 2000, 53 new countries were added to the A-list, for a total of 80.
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