What’s New
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25 October 2013
Japan Moving to Pass National Security Bill
The Japanese Cabinet has approved a controversial bill to protect state secrets. The current developments are described in a Reuters article by Linda Sieg and Kiyoshi Takenaka and in Japan Times by Ayako Mie. The bill is expected to pass later this year. A broad perspective is provided an analysis article by Lawrence Repeta, who teaches law at […]
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25 October 2013
Philippines Panel Assigns FOI Bill to Working Group
The Philippines House Public Information Committee Oct. 23 formed a technical working group to consolidate the 19 different freedom of the information bills before it. Committee Chairman Jorge Almonte wants to rename the legislation “access to information,” a proposal that has generated some negative reaction, according to a report in The Inquirer and another in […]
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25 October 2013
FOI Notes: Aid Transparency, Open Data, United States
Aid Transparency: Information about aid spending is steadily becoming more available, but it also needs to become more useful, concludes a report released by Publish What You Fund. For the first time, a U.S. agency – the Millennium Challenge Corporation – ranks top, scoring 89%, more than double the average score. Global Transparency Week: See […]
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24 October 2013
OGP to Form Group on Private Sector Involvement
The Open Government Partnership plans to form a working group to explore ways for the private sector to become more involved, FreedomInfo.org has learned. The ad hoc group will be announced next week at the OGP summit meeting in London Oct. 31- Nov. 1. It will be jointly chaired by: – Oliver Bell, chief technology […]
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24 October 2013
Sierra Leone Aims to Join OGP After Passing FOI Bill
Sierra Leone is hoping to join the Open Government Partnership soon and is pushing through a freedom of information bill in order to qualify for membership, according to informed sources. A bill will pass on Oct. 29, a top overnment official told Freedominfo.org. That timing would coincide with the OGP annual meeting in London Oct. 31-Nov. […]
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24 October 2013
The Nigerian National Assembly Needs to Follow FOI Law
By Yemi Ademolekun Adamolekun is the National Coordinator of Enough is Enough Nigeria. This article was first published Oct. 24 in Punch. The National Assembly was allocated N150bn ($1 bn) in the 2013 budget. Yes, it’s ONLY three per cent of the total budget of N4.987tn. However, the 469 men and women in the National […]
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23 October 2013
U.S. to Make FOI Reform Major Part of OGP Plan
By Toby McIntosh The U.S. government intends to create a national portal for making freedom of information requests and move toward a single, national FOIA regulation, according to persons briefed this week and government officials. These and other FOIA-related changes would be made part of the second U.S. national action plan as a member of the […]
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17 October 2013
Top European Court Rules in Favor of Transparency
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) Oct. 17 ruled that the Council of the European Union can’t keep secret the identities of member states making proposals in the context of negotiations on EU legislation. “This is a significant victory for transparency and participatory democracy,” said Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access-Info Europe, the winning plaintiff. The final […]
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17 October 2013
Half of OGP Cohort 2 Submit National Self-Assessments
Twenty Open Government Partnership countries recently submitted their self-assessments of progress on their national action plans, according to a FreedomInfo.org tally. Nineteen countries who faced the same Sept. 30 deadline have told OGP officials that the self-assessments are on the way. Posted on the OGP website (on the individual country pages) are self-assessments from: Chile, Colombia, Croatia, […]
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17 October 2013
Sierra Leone Moving to Pass FOI Law; With U.S. Nudge?
Sierra Leone’s parliament may soon pass a long-pending freedom of information law. The unexpected rush to approve the law was sparked by the president’s interest in qualifying for the U.S. aid program, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, according to an informed source. Sierra Leone in December was made eligible for MCC membership. The process to actual inclusion, which […]
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17 October 2013
FOI Notes: Transparency Research, Rio, Nigeria, Open Data
Transparency Research: The papers for the 3rd Annual Conference on Transparency Research, to be held in Paris Oct. 24-26 are now available. Hannes Meissner, ‘Functioning , Effects and Perspectives of Transparency Initiatives – The Example of Azerbaijan‘ Luis Emilio Cuenca Botey & Laure Célérier, ‘Participatory Budgeting: a Bourdieusian Interpretation‘ Tsvetelina Yordanova, ‘Transparency in Foreign Policy […]
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17 October 2013
Philippines Senate Delays Vote on FOI Legislation
The Philippines’ Senate has delayed a vote on a freedom of information bill, probably until 2014. The Senate plans to work first on the proposed 2014 national budget, according to media reports of statements by Senate President Franklin Drilon. Plenary debates on the bill started and some reports had suggested a vote would be held […]
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16 October 2013
Talking About a (Data) Revolution
By Dave Banisar Banisar is Senior Legal Counsel of Article 19. The following article was posted Oct. 16, 2013, on the Article 19 website. At the end of this month, over 50 nations will converge on London for the annual summit of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The OGP has seen rapid growth since its […]
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14 October 2013
Eighth Anniversary Prompts Reflections on Indian RTI Act
The eighth anniversary of India’s Right to Information Act was observed with a mixture of frustration and celebration. Unquestionably, the 2005 sunshine law is being used, with an estimated 4 million people using the Act during 2011-12, the latest year for which all-India data is available, according to a report by the Commonwealth Human Rights […]
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14 October 2013
FOI Notes: Records, India Data, Open Data
Record Management: The interplay of record management and freedom information is explored in a new book by Eduardo Bertoni and Natalia Torres of the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión y Acceso a la Información – CELE) in Argentina. “The main purpose of […]
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14 October 2013
Pace of Handling Zambian ATI Legislation Defended
By Emmanuel Nyirenda Nyirenda is former managing director of the Times of Zambia and Zambia Daily Mail. He also served as permanent secretary at the Ministry of information. This article was published in the Zambia Daily Mail and is reprinted with permission. The introduction of an access to information law in Zambia has been congroversially […]
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11 October 2013
Canadian Commissioners Issue Call for Reform
Canada’s national information and privacy commissioners and the provincial commissioners on Oct. 9 issued an unusual joint resolution saying “Canada must re-establish its position as a leader in both the access and privacy fields” and offering 18 specific suggestions. Only a few Canadian laws “address modern challenges and to ensure continued protection of individuals’ rights […]
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11 October 2013
Seven Senators Offer FOI Bill in Paraguay Drafted by NGOs
Seven senators have introduced a Transparency and Access to Information bill that was drafted by Paraguayan nongovernmental organizations. Martha Ferrara, director of Semillas para la Democracia (Seeds for Democracy), said the project is the result of 10 years work on the subject and presentation, supported by several legislators , and means ” a great achievement […]
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11 October 2013
Alliance Protests Defiance by El Salvador Legislature
The Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información (Regional Alliance for Freedom of Expression and Information) has protested the decision of the Board of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador to ignore an order from the Institute for Access to Public Information (IAIP) to release information about the legislators’ legal advisors. The legislature said […]
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11 October 2013
FOI Notes: Latin America, Nigeria, Canada, India, U.S.
OGP: A study documents the experience of civil society in Latin American regarding the Open Government Partnership focuses on the c activities of two regional civil society networks – Transparency International and Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información (Regional Alianza for Freedom of Expression and Information). Nigeria: A civil society organization, Public and […]