What’s New
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19 May 2014
Puente Elected to Head Expanded IFAI in Mexico
Ximena de la Puente Mora has been unanimously elected by the other six commissioners as the president of the Federal Institute for Access to Information and Data Protection (IFAI). She was elected for a three year term at the first meeting of the expanded commission, whose members were recently selected by the Senate. The wholesale […]
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19 May 2014
Access Info Europe Finds Delays in Council Responses
The Council of the European Union responds to information requests in an average of 20 working days, above the 15 days under law, according to a study issued May 19 by Access Info Europe The Council also is applying too many extensions to requests and not informing all requesters of their right to appeal when […]
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19 May 2014
Pakistan Committee Backs RTI Information Commission
The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting has recommended creation of an independent federal information commission and legal protection for whistleblowers. A committee recently finalized its recommendations on the draft Right to Information bill which has been proposed by the ministry, according to Dawn and the Daily Times. The committee also proposed amendments […]
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16 May 2014
Australian Government Seeks to Close Information Office
The four-year-old Office of Australian Information Commissioner would be abolished Jan. 1, 2015, under a plan put forward by the Abbott government. The changes would save $10.2 million over four years, according to the proposal, described in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Open and Shut blog. Information commissioner John McMillan, privacy commissioner […]
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16 May 2014
Philippines FOI Supporters Start Petition Campaign
Signatures are being collected in support of freedom of information legislation in the Philippines. The drive was kicked off by the Right to Know Right Now! Network and other groups. The campaign may be accessed by logging on to www.change.org/tayonaparasafoi or by clicking here. The Senate has passed a bill, but a House committee assigned it […]
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16 May 2014
OGP Steering Committee OKs Civic Space Plan “in Principle”
The Open Government Partnership Steering Committee May 5 agreed “in principle” to procedures that could lead to the expulsion of member governments whose actions undermine the values and principles of OGP. The OGP leaders deferred adoption, however, pending refinement of the language, according to persons who attended the meeting and spoke not for attribution with […]
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16 May 2014
FOI Notes: RTI Movie in India, and some other stuff
RTI the Movie: A movie, Angusam, with an RTI theme by a director using one name, Manukannan, has come out in India. One review says that “the seriousness of the issue gets diluted, what with the narration being jumpy and inconsistent, and the screenplay layered with romance, songs and sentiment.” A plot description says: Shiva […]
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16 May 2014
Report Backs RTI Exemption for India’s National Banks
The “fragile” condition of India’s public sector banks requires urgent action, according to a new report, including an exemption from the right to information act. The 90-page report by a high-level committee includes numerous recommendations, such as lowering of the government’s holding in the several dozen banks to below 50 percent. The banks face a […]
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16 May 2014
EU Ombudsman Continues Pressing Transparency Issues
European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has raised transparency concerns in two areas, announcing an investigation May 14 into the composition and transparency of the Commission’s expert groups, and asking on May 16 about clinical trial data transparency. On expert groups, she asked interested persons and organizations for feedback “on how balanced the representation of relevant areas […]
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16 May 2014
President Obama Signs Spending Transparency Bill
President Barack Obama on May 9 signed legislation aimed at standardizing and publishing the federal government’s spending data. The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, known as the DATA Act (S. 994) would require the Treasury secretary and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to establish government-wide financial data standards. (See previous FreedomInfo.org […]
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12 May 2014
Private Sector Council Makes Plans for OGP Involvement
A Private Sector Council, established to explore ways in which the private sector can engage in Open Government Partnership activities, presented its plans to the OGP Steering Committee in Bali May 5. The council has been developing its goals since late last year and is preparing a final version of a “white paper.” A draft […]
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9 May 2014
Internews Proposes Forum on FoE/RTI for Southeast Asia
Internews Europe has recommended the creation of a regional forum and network for Southeast Asian organizations working across the range of freedom of expression and right to information issues. Funding for activists to work on these issues has diminished, according to the report. The 60-page report, “Freedom of Expression and Right to Information in ASEAN […]
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9 May 2014
Advocates Begin RTI Petition Campaign in Sri Lanka
A petition calling on the government to pass a right to information law is being circulated in Sri Lanka, where efforts to pass a bill have been frustrated in recent years. The Action Committee for Media Freedom Rights activists held an event in Colombo May 5 to launch the petition drive. “This is the only […]
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9 May 2014
Tanzanian Minister Says FOI Legislation Being Prepared
A top minister in Tanzania has stated that a paper proposing a freedom of information bill has been prepared. The disclosure by Constitutional and Legal Affairs Minister Asha-Rose Migiro was reported May 5 in The Guardian. She said the government is committed to observing Open Government Partnership (OGP) as part of its efforts to enhance […]
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9 May 2014
New York Court OKs Release of Pensioners’ Names
A New York state court has ruled that the names of retired public workers in public pension systems are releasable under the state’s freedom of information law. The Court of Appeals May 6 decided that disclosure of names is not an invasion of privacy, but that their addresses shouldn’t be made public. The state retirement […]
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9 May 2014
Using FOIA to Get Evidence on Bribe Takers
By Ignacio A. Boulin Victoria The author is Professor of Public Law at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina) and co-founder of the human rights group CLADH. His article first appeared May 5 on the Global Anticorruption Blog. In a recent post, Richard Messick observed–correctly–that although in the last 10-15 years we have seen greater enforcement by […]
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9 May 2014
Access to information: Key to development
By Annie Game Game is Executive Director of IFEX. This article was posted May 1, World Press Freedom Day, on the IFEX blog and is available in: Français Español ???? When residents of Bangladesh’s Khulna municipality along the Rupsha River began noticing a spike in health problems in their community, they turned to community leader […]
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9 May 2014
FOI Notes: UN Declaration, NGO Transparency, Video
UN Experts’ Joint Declaration: Frank La Rue, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and other UN experts issued a declaration addressing the lack in the promotion and protection of the rights to freedom of expression and information, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association and […]
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6 May 2014
Aruna Roy Rocks OGP Regional Summit in Bali
Judging by enthusiastic tweets, the Open Government Partnership regional summit in Bali got off to a rousing first day, in part because “the spirit of Aruna Roy is contagious!” as one person wrote on Twitter. Roy, the Indian social activist and a leading force behind the Right to Information law, received a lot of Twitter […]
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5 May 2014
CSOs Urge OGP to Address Preserving Civic Space
A statement by 183 representatives of civil society organizations from 31 Asia Pacific countries gathered May 4 in Bali for the Open Government Partnership regional summit highlights three issues. The statement first emphasizes “the importance and need for establishing, expanding and consolidating civic space.” It says, “In some democratic states, civil society space has been […]