South Asia: A new book, “Transparent Governance in South Asia,” published by the Indian Institute of Public Administration, provides detailed historical articles on the right to access movements in the region. The chapters cover:
– Evolution of RTI Act 2009 in Bangladesh,
– RTI Law Implementation in Bangladesh
– RTI in Bhutan: A Background Note
– The Genesis and Evolution of the Right to Information Regime in India
– Right to Information in Maldives
– Freedom of Information in Nepal
– Right to information in Pakistan
– Freedom of Information in Sri Lanka
In addition, there are materials summarizing workshop proceedings, RTI implementation in India and a literature review.
United States: A number of articles continue to be critical of the transparency performance of the Obama administration.
One is an June 26 op-ed article in The New York Times by Geoffrey R. Stone is a professor of law at the Unversity of Chicago and chairman of the board of the American Constitution Society.
Another is a news article June 25 in The New York Times by Natasha Singer.
Looking much further back, like 45 years ago when the US FOIA was passed, is an article of appreciation in Counter Punch by Ralph Nader about John Moss, the Democratic congressman from California who pushed for the law.
A new book by Michael Lemov about Moss called “People’s Warrior: John Moss and the Fight for Freedom of Information and Consumer Rights,” can be found on Amazon.
OECD: Transparency topics figure in the latest Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development “Government at a Glance 2011” report. The volume provides a dashboard of close to 60 indicators for both member and partner countries assembled to help decisionmakers and the public analyze and benchmark government performance. The publication includes comparative data on public management practices relating to transparency and integrity and many other topics.
Filed under: What's New