Commentary: The Centre for Law and Democracy addresses the passage of the 100th RTI law. Among other observations:
- One hundred RTI laws is a momentous achievement but, amidst the celebrations, we must bear in mind that this represents only about half of the world’s countries.
- In other words, the average RTI law still lacks nearly one half of the hallmarks of an ideal legal framework.
- Significantly, many of the world’s weaker RTI laws are found in developed democracies.
- Beyond weak legislation, poor implementation remains a problem that cuts across RTI systems in both the developed and developing world.
Development Agenda: 130 other organizations have written an open letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling on him to recognize freedom of expression and information in his Post-2015 report on development goals. His report will kick off formal negotiations for the Sustainable Development Goals next year. See Article 19 blog post on the process.
Latin America: A report (in Spanish) about electronic access to information platforms to file requests in Brasil, México and other country written by Silvana Fumega for the World Bank: “The Use of E-Platforms for handling access to information requests: The Cases of the E-SIC (Brazil); Portal (Chile); and Infomex (Mexico).” This note was jointly published by the WB, the Red de Transparencia y Acceso la Informacion – RTA (the Latin American Regional Network of Access to Information Oversight and Enforcement Bodies) and Chile’s Council of Transparency. An OGP webinar in Spanish will be conducted on this topic during the coming months.
Commentary: In a blog post for El Universal (in Spanish), Lilia Saúl Rodríguez writes about the state of transparency in Mexico.
Kenya: George Kegoro, Executive Director of the International Commission of Jurists – Kenya Chapter, addresses the challenges of freedom of information in Kenya.
United States: A coalition of 25 transparency groups and open government advocates sent a letter to President Obama urging him to either “withdraw” or “provide guidance to agencies” on a 2009 White House Counsel memorandum that instructs all federal agencies to consult with White House attorneys on documents of interest to the Administration before releasing them.
Open Data: The Open Government Partnership Open Data Working Group is interested in receiving research proposals for work exploring the technical and practical implications of Open Data.
Commentary: “Ultimately, openness is our path towards a brighter future for all,” according to authors Felipe Estefan, Josephy Mansilla, Kerina Wang in a World Bank blog post.
FOI Art: A UK controversy over expenses by members of parliament, uncovered through FOI requests, was immortalized in a wood carving. The carving decorates a chair, engraved with the words “The Freedom of Information Act” and featuring carvings of Gordon Brown, David Cameron Nick Clegg, The Daily Telegraph… and a duckhouse. Featured on the BBC television show Antiques Roadshow at which objects are valued, the chair was assessed at anywhere between £2,000 and £10,000 “and upwards.”
Transparency Research: The 2015 edition of the Barcelona Workshop on Global Governance will ask how ‘the public’ and ‘the private’ are related in current structures of global governance. The deadline of the call for papers was Sept. 29.
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