What’s New
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11 November 2011
Right to Know Day or Right to Information Day?
A spirited discussion is under way over whether Sept 28, a day that for nine years has been called “Right to Know Day,” should be renamed as “Right to Information Day.” The issue has arisen following a declaration, passed at a major conference in South Africa, which urges the United Nations to declare a “Right […]
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11 November 2011
OGP Members to Present Status Reports in Brazil
Countries that will participate in the upcoming Open Government Partnership meeting in Brazil have been asked to make short presentations on their efforts to date to develop national action plans, according to the OGP website. In other recent OGP news: – The OGP is advertising to hire a person who for its support unit. – […]
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11 November 2011
FOI Notes: Portal, Books, Studies, Video Contest
Open Data: UNESCO has created a portal that presents a snapshot of the status of Open Access to scientific information around the world. “The portal has country reports from over 148 countries with weblinks to over 2000 initiatives/projects in Member States. The portal is supported by an existing Community of Practice on Open Access on […]
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7 November 2011
Aquino Equivocation Frustrates FOI Bill Supporters
Philippines President Benigno Aquino Nov. 4 continued to voice doubts for months about freedom of information legislation, saying in a YouTube interview that “the devil is in the details.” He continued, “When does it help the interests of the people and when can it inflict harm?” Still, he said his administration is consulting in an […]
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4 November 2011
Websites Proliferate to Generate FOI Requests
By Toby McIntosh AsktheEU, Fragen de Stat, InformataZyrtare.org, spinfo, Acceso Inteligente, and Queremos Saber. These names reflect six new websites that allow requesters to draft and file freedom of information requests online. Plus, they they track the requests and archive the answers. All were launched in the past few months, doubling the number of sites that […]
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31 October 2011
Designing Exemptions That Balance Both Effective and Accountable Governance
By Muhammad Zamir Zami is Chief Information Commissioner, Information Commission, Bangladesh. He gave this talk Oct. 4 at the Ottawa, Canada, meeting of the International Conference of Information Commissioners. His original title is: “Limiting the limitations: Designing exemptions that balance both effective and accountable governance” I hope I am permitted to say that our meeting […]
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28 October 2011
FOI Laws: Counts Vary Depending on Definitions
By Toby McIntosh How many countries have freedom of information regimes? a.) 86 b.) 87 c.) 88 d.) 90 e.) more than 90 f.) 97 g.) all of the above The answer depends on the precise question and definitions. While there is substantial consensus, disagreements exist at the margins for the handful of experts who […]
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28 October 2011
Alianza Regional Presents FOIA Report to Commission
The Alliance for Freedom of Expression and Information Oct. 24 in Washington urged the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights to pay more attention to access to information. A delegation representing the 24 organizations of 18 different countries requested that access to information be added as a relevant theme access on the country visits done by the IACHR […]
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26 October 2011
Brazilian Senate Approves Access to Information Bill
The Brazilian Senate Oct. 25 approved an access to information bill after months of delay during which opponents sought to weaken it. President Dilma Rousseff is expected to sign the bill (in English and in Portuguese), which will implement the right to access provision in the Constitution after eight years of effort to get such […]
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25 October 2011
OGP Posts Draft Disclosure Policy, Seeks Comments
The Open Government Partnership Steering Committee Oct. 25 proposed a disclosure policy, inviting public comment by Nov. 25. The draft policy begins with a pledge. “The Open Government Partnership is committed to modeling best practices and embodying the principles of transparency, accountability and citizen engagement that it promotes. OGP is committed to being accountable to […]
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21 October 2011
OGP Continues Organizing; Disclosure Policy on Horizon
The Open Government Partnership will release its own proposed disclosure policy Oct. 25 as the organizers continue to develop the international effort. The OGP steering committee also is preparing a governance policy that will, among things, deal with how to incorporate the new country members into the organization. The OGP steering committee is an unusual […]
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21 October 2011
FOI Notes: Open Data, Latin America, ICIC, Morocco, US
Open Data: Material from the Warsaw open government data conference. An evaluation of the state of open data movement by blogger David Eaves. Latin America: A delegation representing the Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información will present a report Oct. 24 in Washington at a hearing about access to public information before the […]
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21 October 2011
Opposition Parliamentarian Calls for FOI Law in Singapore
An opposition member of parliament Oct. 20 called on the government to introduce a freedom of information, but his suggestion was not well received by the ruling party. The recommendation came from Pritam Singh of the Workers’ Party and reiterates previous suggestions from the Workers’ Party made in its 2006 and 2011 election manifestos. His […]
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21 October 2011
Ghana VP Calls for Passage of RTI Law; Advocacy Continues
The Vice President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, on Oct. 12 urged Parliament to pass a right to information bill, according to a report in Modern Ghana. “He said Cabinet had already approved the bill, and that there was the need for Parliament to pass it into law to support efforts at fighting corruption in […]
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21 October 2011
EU Parliament Committee Makes Small Changes in 1049
A committee of the European Union Parliament has modified the scope of the access to documents Regulation 1049/2001 to slightly expand its scope. In addition, there are some signs that the larger debate over access to EU documents is being rekindled. As amended by the Constitutional Affairs Committee opinion, the regulation will cover EU offices, […]
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21 October 2011
Proactive Transparency for Public Services: the Berlin Model
By Alexander Dix Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information This is a translation of an article originally published in the German Yearbook on Freedom of Information and Information Law. Resources: The Berlin FOI Act as amended 2010 and The Act for the Full Disclosure of Secret Contracts for the Partial Privatization of the Berlin Water Utilities (as […]
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18 October 2011
Indian Law Minister Denies Plans to Rewrite RTI Act
A top Indian minister has denied that the government wants to rewrite the right to information law, apparently seeking to quell a firestorm of criticisms precipitated by the prime minister’s call for a “critical look” at the RTI Act. Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid Oct. 16 said there is no proposal to “relook” at the […]
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14 October 2011
Indian Prime Minister Urges Critical Look at RTI Act
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Oct. 14 called for a “critical look” at the six-year-old Right to Information Act. He expressed concern about a “flood” of requests, about disclosure inhibiting the deliberations of government officials, and about the coverage of private-public partnerships. Singh’s comments before the annual convention of Information Commissioners were quickly criticized as […]
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14 October 2011
Chinese Agencies Rank Poorly in Annual Transparency Study
Thirty-five out of China’s 43 federal departments get failing grades on transparency, according to the 2010 China Administrative Transparency Report by the OGI Watch Alliance Project. “The institution that did the worst was the Ministry of Supervision, the very ministry responsible for making sure officials release information in accordance with the law,” according to an […]
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14 October 2011
FOI Law Proposals Being Developed in Egypt
Qute a few proposals for an Egyptian freedom of information law are being drafted, most privately, but action on them is not expected until after a new constitution is adopted sometime late next year. Transparency advocates are pushing for inclusion of a right to information clause in constitution. The drafting of FOI law proposals is […]