What’s New
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16 May 2011
Audit of Bulgarian Websites Finds Chaotic Variety
The Access to Information Programme in Bulgarian has found “a chaotic variety” of structures and information on government websites. The audit was designed to evaluate the implementation of the obligations under the Access to Public Information Act (APIA) for online publication of certain categories of information. The study also examined the performance under other regulations […]
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16 May 2011
Study in Chile Faults Administration of FOI Law
A study of the two-year old Transparency Act in Chile by Pro Access and Participate has identified problems with using the internet to make requests for information. They studied 169 organizations and found that only 47% of the time could applications be made ??via the internet. Moreover, 71% of the requestors faced problems with the […]
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13 May 2011
New Website in Peru Covers Court Decisions on Access
A new website in Peru — Justicia y Transparencia (Justice and Transparency)(http://www.justiciaytransparencia.pe) — gathers and organizes all the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Peru on access to public and private information. Suma Ciudadana said its intention is to ensure that national jurisprudence becomes a useful tool to help to disseminate the right of access […]
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13 May 2011
Canadian Press Group Scores Government Low on Access
The Canadian Journalists for Fee Expression have given the government an “F-“ for access to information. A new report by the group rates more than half of federal agencies as below average and says five failed outright. Further, 44 percent of information requests filed with the federal government are not responded to within 30 days, […]
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13 May 2011
Advisory Group Formed in Uruguay on Access Law
A Consultative Council of the Law on Access to Public Information has just been created in Uruguay. This advisory and consultative body brings together representatives from the academia, the government and the civil society. The council was mandated by the FOI law. “It institutionalizes participation and it has an important advocacy strategy to impact on […]
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13 May 2011
Namibians Denied Right to Information by Government
By Nghidipo Nangola Nangola is a film maker and producer May 3 is World Press Freedom Day and Namibia can pat itself on the shoulder for having guaranteed the freedom for journalists to collect, produce and disseminate information without hindrance. Aside of a few local journalists being roughed up by overzealous security men and one […]
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13 May 2011
FOI Notes: Reports, Books
Budget Transparency: A report (in Spanish) on access to information on expenditures and budget in Latin American legislatures has been published by Red Latinoamericana por la Transparencia Legislativa. New Book: Wikileaks and the Age of Transparency by Micah L. Sifry. Political analyst and writer Sifry argues that WikiLeaks is not the whole story: it is […]
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13 May 2011
UN Publishes Revised Draft on Article 19 Commentary
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has released a revised version dated May 3 of its proposed General Comment 34 on the Article 19, incorporating the changes made so far. [Note; the URL above does not take you directly to the text. Click on Human Rights Bodies, then Human Rights Committee, then General Comments, then […]
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13 May 2011
Dutch Minister Proposes Cutbacks to Openness Law
Dutch Home Affairs Minister Piet Hein Donner May 5 suggested that the government will propose limitations on use of Holland’s Openness of Government Act, primarily to protect information about predecisional deliberations. Donner did not provide specifics during a speech in which he also said that government officials are overburdened in responding to requests for information, […]
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12 May 2011
Opponents Delay Action on Mexican FOIA Amendments
By Gabriela Ruiz Visiting researcher at The National Security Archive and FOIA Officer at the Chiapas Access to Information Institute Reforms to the Mexican Federal Law of Transparency and Access to Information are stalled in the Congress because of objections from some lawmakers. They are criticizing amendments that would give more power to the Federal […]
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6 May 2011
Nigerian FOI Bill One of Last Items on Assembly Agenda
With less than a month to go until the end of the parliamentary session in Nigeria, the freedom of information bill will be a priority, according to Senate officials. The big task remaining, however, is to harmonize the House and Senate bills, and a joint committee to do the job has not been appointed. Nevertheless, […]
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6 May 2011
Maltese Journalists Seek Implementation of FOI Act
The Institute of Maltese Journalists has urged government action to implement the Freedom of Information Act “as soon as possible,” according to The Times of Malta, as an expert on the law calls it a “dead letter.” “Malta has a Freedom of Information Act on its statute book. But only a few provisions of this […]
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6 May 2011
Using RTI Rivals Bribery in Fighting Bureaucracy
Right to information requests rival bribery as a way to cut through bureaucratic red tape in India, according to two studies by U.S. academics. The experiments involved the complicated processes of registering to vote and getting ration cards, and were conducted by Yale University political scientists, Leonid Peisakhin and Paul Pinto. Bribery is a better […]
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6 May 2011
FOI Notes: Research Motherload, and More
Research: More than five dozen papers have just been posted that will be presented at the 1st Global Conference on Transparency Research, to be held May 19-20 at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. Titles include: Bertoni, Eduardo: Freedom of Information. Three harmless words? The role of the media and access to information laws Fumega, Silvana […]
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6 May 2011
Ghana Minister Says President Will Sign RTI Bill
Ghana’s Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, May 3 said that President John Atta Mill’s administration is committed to the passage of the stalled right to information bill, but that the bill is in the hands of parliament now. “Once that is done, I assure you, President Mills will not hesitate to grant it assent,” […]
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6 May 2011
Release of Bin Laden Photo Debatable Under US FOIA
By Nate Jones FOIA Coordinator for the National Security Archive. Originally published in NSA’s Unredacted blog. With the news that President Obama has decided not to release photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse, twitter has been aflutter asking if the documents can be released under FOIA. Gawker has a pretty good piece quoting Daniel Metcalfe, […]
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6 May 2011
Press Group Urges Action on RTI Bill in Mozambique
The Mozambican chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) May 3 “condemned the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, for its failure to schedule for debate the draft Right to Information Bill which was submitted to parliament six years ago.” In a press release issued on World Press Freedom Day, MISA-Mozambique said […]
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6 May 2011
Irish Commissioner Suggests Expansion of FOI Law
Irish Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly May 3 issued her Annual Report for 2010, recommending that the scope of the law be expanded to cover more public bodies, including the administrative side of An Garda Síochána [the Irish government police force] and the biggest state-controlled financial institutions. She also objected to recent cutbacks on the coverage […]
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5 May 2011
Impeached Ex-President Pockets Brazilian FOI Bill
By Greg Michener Michener is a Rio de Janeiro-based political scientist currently writing a book for Cambridge University Press on freedom of information in Latin America. E-mail is . His blog is http://observingbrazil.com A surprising turn of events threatens to derail President Dilma Rousseff’s bid for greater governmental openness and transparency in Brazil. Brazil was on […]
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5 May 2011
Jersey Passes FOI Law, Sets 2015 Implementation Date
By Toby McIntosh The Jersey States Assembly on May 4 approved a freedom of information law, but decided it will not go into force until the end of 2015. Passage of the bill was nearly unanimous, but a separate action on implementation hinted at underlying tension with government officials. The States Assembly also approved a proposition asking […]