RTI Rating: Access Info Europe and the Centre for Law and Democracy issue a report on trends in their global RTI Rating, which assesses the legal framework for the right to information in every country in the world which has adopted an RTI law. “A major finding of the report is that as international standards have developed laws have got stronger. At the same time, there is still a lot of room for improvement, with only 23 countries scoring more than 100 points.” The report says some of the world’s weakest laws are in the older democracies of Europe. Austria is bottom with 37 points out of 150 points, Germany just scored 52 points and Italy 57 points. “Spain has no law and its current draft has scored a very low 68 points.”
RTK Day Tweeting: FOIAnet poses questions and many others use Twitter (#RTKD2013) to discuss access to information. Also see the FOIAnet Facebook page.
Middle East: Transparency International issues four reports and a documentary, part of a USAID-funded project, Addressing Corruption Through Information and Organised Networking (ACTION),“ focused on Yemen, Palestine, Egypt and Morocco.
Funding: “Making All Voices Count: A Grand Challenge for Development “issues its first call for the submission of proposals. This call will be open from Sept. 24 until Nov. 8. Selected grantees are expected to be announced by Jan. 24, 2014. More detailed information can be found on the website. Making All Voices Count is implemented by a consortium consisting of Hivos (lead organisation), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and Ushahidi. Making All Voices Count is supported by USAID, DFID, Omidyar Network, SIDA and Open Society Foundations. Among other criteria, the activities must have ” a clear and direct impact in one or more of the following countries: Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.”
Employment: The Open Society Foundations is looking to hire a full-time program manager to develop and expand the program’s work “to support the nascent digital advocacy field, and the strategic use of new technologies and data by the human rights and transparency/accountability sectors.” Deadline Oct. 19.
Employment: The Open Government Partnership is seeking a Program Officer “to drive the Support Unit’s work on supporting OGP participating countries to develop and implement high quality, relevant, and ambitious OGP action plans. Learn more about this opportunity and how to apply.
Call for Papers: Stanford University is organizing a conference in India on the intersection between technology, accountability and democracy. Access to Information will be a cross-cutting theme. “While we are particularly interested in papers that deal with technology, we also welcome papers that deal with access to information by women, the poor or by vulnerable social groups.” Download further details here.
United States: The U.S. FOIA law is actively used by business, according to a Wall Street Journal blog post by Brody Mullins and Christopher Weaver.
Commentary: A blog post by David Eaves argues for putting FOI requests and the results online.
Australia: The FOI law is “broken” according to a Globe & Mail article by Nick Olle.
United Kingdom: The Information Commissioners Office issues guidance on meeting time deadlines.
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