India: The movie “The writing on the wall – RTI comes to Malav” is available online. In the Indian state of Gujarat, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and its partner, Nagrik Adhikar Kendra (Citizens’ Rights Centre) worked with local public authorities to transform a rural town into a model for the proactive disclosure of information. ‘The Writing on the Wall’ is a documentary film which follows their success in bringing RTI to Malav. You can now watch the full film on SARTIAN, South Asia’s leading RTI community and knowledge hub.
United States: In June 2012, Bloomberg News requested the travel records of top officials at 57 federal agencies under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. A follow-up investigation reveals that about one-fifth of those surveyed – including five members of President Barack Obama’s cabinet – have yet to disclose the details and cost of their travels.
European Union: A report from the European Commission on the application in 2012 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
ICIC Conference: The registration deadline is July 31 for the 8th International Conference of Information Commissioners (ICIC 2013) will be held Sept. 18-20 in Berlin. Details on registration and the agenda are available at http://www.info-commissioners.org/ Correspondence may be addressed to icic2013@bfdi.bund.de.
Open Government: The 20 Basics of Open Government “was created with digital love and sweat” by the Open Forum Foundation. “Our goal was to include the full expanse of open government and show how it all ties together so that when you, the astute reader, meet up with one of the various opengov cliques that uses the terminology in a narrowly defined way, you can see how they fit into the bigger picture.”
United States: Greg Heller of Global Integrity writes that a new U.S. Open Government Partnership action plan should contain “commitments around greater transparency and accountability of domestic surveillance programs.
FOIA Machine: A U.S. groups seeks to raise funds through Kickstarter, the online service for raising capital, in order to start a new online platform “to give people a legal way to get these secrets from the government.” It’s called FOIA Machine, it’s almost ready to launch and we need your help. It’s sponsored by the award-winning nonprofit The Center for Investigative Reporting.
Article 19: The London-based freedom of expression advocacy group announces that Thomas Hughes will be the new executive director as of Oct. 1, taking over from Agnes Callamard, who has been with ARTICLE 19 for the past nine years. Thomas has worked for the European Commission, International Media Support, and Media Frontiers,
FOI Terrorist: The U.S. FOI group Muck Rock does an interview with journalist Jason Leopold, a self-described “FOIA Terrorist,” who provides many suggestions about filing FOIA requests.
Environment: A new handbook by the Centre for Investigative Journalism describes how to use environmental information regulations to get access to environmental data held by local, national and European governments and agencies.
Advocacy: Some RTI activists in India gate-crash weddings to distribute pamphlets on how to use RTI. NGO Fifth Pillar founder Vijay Anand said the initiative is getting good response from the public, according to an article in The Times of India.”Many people are unaware of the RTI Act even after eight years of the legislation coming into force. Marriage functions are a good place to reach out to people of all religions and walks of life.”
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