India: One winner of the 2014 Goldman Environmental prize, Ramesh Agrawal of India, is an active RTI user. The announcement said: “With a small internet café as his headquarters, Ramesh Agrawal organized villagers to demand their right to information about industrial development projects and succeeded in shutting down one of the largest proposed coal mines in Chhattisgarh.”
United States: Juan E. Méndez, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, writes that the US is hiding its record on torture.
Malawi: Text of the national access to information policy. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
India: An e-book by Sudhir Naib, The Right to Information Act 2005: A Handbook, has been published by John Wiley And Sons LTD; ISBN number is 1374675911810.
OGP: The OGP is looking to hire a communications manager.
Open Data: The British government has announced creation of a £1.5 million (about €1.8 million) Release of Data fund. The Open Data User Group (ODUG), which acts as a bridge between the open data community and government, will collect bids for funding. The first round of funding supports projects that will release public data directly, but also those that will help boost skills in the public sector. More funding will follow later this year.
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