Media: The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has issued a volume analyzing the challenges and opportunities presented to journalists as they attempt to hold governments accountable in an era of professed transparency.”
Security Sector: The Transparency and Accountability Initiative, the producers of the Open Government Guide have invited comments on a draft chapter on open government in relation to the Security Sector “with recommendations on how best governments can manage the fundamental tension between access to information and democratic oversight on one hand, and the legitimate conduct of diplomacy, military operations and intelligence activities.” The draft of this section is open for comments here: www.opengovguide.com/news/please-help-develop-recommendations-open-government-security-sector .
India: Law professor Madabhushi Sridhar took the oath of office to become a Central Information Commissioner in New Delhi, reports the Indian Express.
United States: A critical article in Newsweek on the operation of the U.S. FOIA by David Cay Johnston.
United States: A Muckrock interview with John Young, the founder of the online document library Cryptome. Comments include: “FOIA failure and increase in secret keeping has led to more leaks, which is a healthy response not a danger.”
Research: “Radical Transparency in Journalism: Digit Evolutions from Historical Precedents,” a paper by Luke J. Heemsbergen.
Abstract: This paper argues that transparency projects retain a political hue from the social-technological context from which they are created. Thus, radical transparency is considered as an opportunity to evolve both journalistic and democratic practices. Transparency in practice reveals diverse expectations of how journalists reporting should be used, and these expectations in turn, seem dependent on specific worldviews. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the effects of the current exemplar of radical journalism, WikiLeaks. It compares Wikileaks to its historical equivalents, including Hansard in the 18th century, and the reporting of open diplomacy in the early 20th century. This analysis shows how journalism evolves along with radical transparency projects, and how the current context of networked radical transparency can, and will, be made into news with specific political effects. In conclusion, this paper argues that practitioners should be aware of the political hues that new transparency mechanisms afford. Being cognizant of context and design choices can increase the degree to which new initiatives can have a deep systemic impact—as well as acknowledge the qualities and repercussions of that impact.
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