What’s New
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8 July 2011
World Bank Reaches Deal With MPs in Ghana
By Toby McIntosh Key members of Parliament in Ghana have committed to hold regional consultations on the proposed right to information bill, FreedomInfo.org has learned. The sessions will be held during the summer recess from mid-July to mid-August in five locations around the country. Members of Parliament have said since late last year that they wanted […]
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8 July 2011
The Case of the Military Logbook of Guatemala
By Natalia Torres, CELE Senior Researcher Articles on freedom of information in Latin America, written by the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE) in Argentina, will be a regular feature in FreedomInfo.org. See this article Spanish. It is difficult to talk about the evolution of the right to know in […]
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8 July 2011
El caso del Diario Militar de Guatemala
Por Natalia Torres, Investigadora Principal del CELE Difícil hablar de la genealogía del derecho a saber en Latinoamérica sin considerar las batallas por el derecho a la verdad, el derecho de familiares de personas desaparecidas a saber qué ocurrió con ellas, cuál fue la conducta estatal, independientemente de las posibilidades de persecucio?n penal. En esta […]
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8 July 2011
FOI Notes: New OECD Data, Bangladesh, Open Data
OECD: The second edition of Government at a Glance almost doubles the number of available indicators in a report on the performance of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development governments, to nearly 60. The data covers some elements of freedom of information laws. The survey was completed by 32 OECD countries, as well as by the Russian Federation […]
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7 July 2011
Sierra Leone Official Lists FOIA Bill Impediments
In a detailed and frank speech, a key Sierra Leone official has described the impediments facing freedom of information legislation that has been ready for a vote in Parliament since March. The July 7 talk by Edward Kwame Yankson, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communications, included a jibe at civil society groups […]
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7 July 2011
UK to Release Data on Government Performance
United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron July 7 ordered the release of more information about medical care, hospitals, schools and transportation services. His action will require a wide range of public bodies to publish data on their performance. “This represents the most ambitious open data agenda of any government anywhere in the world,” according to the […]
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7 July 2011
Polish Government Proposes Data Reuse Legislation
The Polish government has proposed legislation that would make public information available for re-use, according to a press release by the public interest group Centrum Cyfrowe. The draft bill will now be sent to Parliament. Under the bill, all public information accessible online or made available pursuant through individiual requests will be available for re-use free […]
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7 July 2011
Nigerian State of Ekiti Approves FOI Law
Kayode Fayemi, governor of the Nigerian state of Ekiti State, signed a freedom of information act for his state on July 4. The legislation was described as a domestication” of the new Nigerian national FOIA law in report by Emma Maduabuchi in The Independent. The Nigerian law was signed in May. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) […]
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7 July 2011
Sri Lankan RTI Backers Shudder at Rajapaksa Quote
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa last week told newspaper editors that a law to protect the people’s right to information was unnecessary. He said instead that he could ensure access to information, saying “just ask me for a file and I will give it to you,” according media reports such as this one in Lakmiba […]
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7 July 2011
Survey Finds FOIA Backlog Growing in United States
Forty-five years after President Johnson signed the U.S. Freedom of Information Act into law in 1966, federal agency backlogs of FOIA requests are growing, with the oldest requests at eight agencies dating back over a decade and the single oldest request now 20 years old, according to the Knight Open Government Survey by the National […]
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6 July 2011
Obama Transparency Effort Seeks National Commitments
By Toby McIntosh The United States will host a multinational meeting July 12 at which representatives from more than 50 countries will discuss ways to bring more openness to their nations. Sixteen categories of transparency will be put on the table, according to pre-meeting materials obtained by FreedomInfo.org. The eventual goal is for individual countries to pledge […]
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5 July 2011
New Moroccan Constitution Includes Access Article
The new Moroccan constitution, passed with a 98 percent affirmative vote and 72 percent participation on July 1, includes a provision on access to information. New legislative elections are to be held in three or four months and transparency activists hope to see an access law on the books by the end of 2012. “We […]
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1 July 2011
FOI Proposals in Hungary Would Weaken Law
A bill before the Hungarian Parliament would replace the independent Data Protection and Freedom of Information Commissioner with a less independent administrative authority. “This change will seriously weaken the right to access to information in Hungary,” according to Hutti Tivadar, Head of Data Protection and Freedom of Information Program, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. The legislation which was […]
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1 July 2011
Slovakian Groups Criticize Ideas to Alter Access Law
The Slovak association Via Iuris and Transparency International Slovakia have warned that proposed revisions to the law on access to information would “mean a major setback and a significant weakening of the rights of citizens and journalists for information,” in the words of Via Iuris. Draft amendments undergoing interdepartmental review, the groups explained in June 28 press […]
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1 July 2011
Conferees Discuss FOIA Reforms in Dominican Republic
By Natalia Torres, CELE´s Senior Researcher Articles on freedom of information in Latin America, written by the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE) in Argentina, will be a regular feature in FreedomInfo.org. See this article Spanish. On June 9 and 10, the International Seminar “Inter-American Model Law on Access to […]
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1 July 2011
Ley modelo y legislación local en Dominicana
By Natalia Torres, Investigadora Principal del CELE. El pasado 9 y 10 de junio se realizó en Santo Domingo el Seminario Internacional “Ley Modelo Interamericana sobre Acceso a la Información y su aplicación en República Dominicana”. El seminario, organizado por la Secretari?a para Asuntos Juri?dicos de la Organización de Estados Americanos, el Banco Mundial, la […]
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1 July 2011
Participants in Indonesian Training to Submit Requests
Some 40 participants in a recent training session in Indonesia have agreed to each submit 10 requests under the Indonesian FOI law. The participants come from different civil society groups and will have support from the Centre for Law and Democracy, based in Halifax, Canada, and the Indonesian Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI). The commitment […]
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1 July 2011
Uganda Access Regulations Problematical, WRI Says
The new regulations to implement the Uganda Access to Information Act of 2005 contain “burdensome provisions that make access unnecessarily costly and difficult,” according to a new analysis. The assessment comes from the World Resources Institute in a report entitled “Access to Information Regulations: Another Bump in the Road to Transparency,” by Gaia Larsen, Carole […]
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30 June 2011
Sierra Leone Minister Says Parliament Needs Persuading
A Sierra Leone minister has said efforts are under way to convince Parliament to pass a freedom of information law. Deputy Information Minister Sheka Tarawalli said in a recent interview with Cocorioko News, “We have been lobbying MPs and embarking on sensitization campaigns as to the necessity of the Act, and it is our hope […]
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29 June 2011
Amending Access to Information Legislation
By Toby Mendel Toby Mendel is Executive Director of Centre for Law in Democracy The following is the concluding chapter (minus footnotes) of a recent report entitled Amending Access to Information Legislation: Legal and Political Issues. It is the seventh paper on access to information in the Governance Working Paper series published by the World […]