What’s New
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12 November 2014
Indian CIC Schedules Hearing On Nov. 21 for Political Parties
The Indian Central Information Commission has scheduled a Nov. 21 hearing on non-compliance by six political parties withy a June 3, 2013, order bringing them under the purview of Right to Information Act. The commission has asked the parties to appear before it and produce all relevant documents. One such order was issued Feb. 7. […]
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12 November 2014
Latin American Countries Make OGP Access Commitments
By Jesse Franzblau The following is an excerpt from a summary prepared by Jesse Franzblau for the Open Government Partnership Civil Society Hub blog. The article reviews the commitments made by the 17 OGP member countries in Latin America in their national action plans. This section, minus footnotes and some lovely formatting, describes the access […]
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10 November 2014
Senate Panel Schedules Meeting on FOI Legislation
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a meeting for 10 a.m. Nov. 13 to consider S.2520, the FOIA Improvement Act of 2014. With limited time left in this session of Congress and new current swirled by the recent election, the hope is for “unanimous consent” passage in the Judiciary Committee and expeditious passage on the […]
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6 November 2014
World Bank Sparks Discussion of RTI Implementation
The World Bank is exploring how it can encourage better implementation of right to information laws. One idea on the table at a Nov. 5 forum in Washington was to create an international standard about what governments should report on their compliance with RTI laws. Also discussed was to develop a set of international principles […]
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6 November 2014
EITI, OGP Face Challenges Handling Civic Space Issues
By Toby McIntosh New mechanisms by two multilateral organizations, designed to protect the rights of civil society activists, will soon be tested. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is examining whether Azerbaijan should lose its membership for stifling dissent, using a policy intended to prevent such behavior that was substantially mimicked by the Open Government Partnership. […]
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6 November 2014
Malawi Political Delays vs. Civil Society Initiatives
By Michael Kaiyatsa The author is Training and Research Coordinator, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation. This is a chapter in a recently issued State of Right to Information in Africa Report 2014 and is reprinted with permission. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) Malawi has demonstrated exceptional leadership in terms of ratification of African Union treaties that recognize the […]
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6 November 2014
Mozambique Parliament Makes an Important Step on RTI
By Alfredo Libombo The author is Executive Director, ACREDITAR, Mozambique. This is a chapter in a recently issued State of Right to Information in Africa Report 2014 and is reprinted with permission. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) The Republic of Mozambique has demonstrated political commitment to accountability on the basis of African treaties. The government has ratified five of the […]
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6 November 2014
ECB Releases Letter at Urging of EU Ombudsman
The Governing Council of the European Central Bank Nov. 6 decided to publish a letter written four years by former ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet to then Irish Finance minister Brian Lenihan. The announcement said the release of the document “honoured” a request in March by the European Ombudsman that the ECB reconsider its previous refusal […]
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6 November 2014
Arkansas Judge Orders Public Official Arrested
A judge in Arkansas on Nov. 5 issued an arrest warrant for a government agency official over claims he didn’t provide documents requested by an Arkansas newspaper. A prosecutor earlier this week had issued an arrest affidavit for the official, accused of a misdemeanor charge of violating the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Pulaski County […]
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6 November 2014
Tanzanian Parliament Orders Arrest of 2 Company Officials
Two top officials at Tanzania’s state-owned oil agency were arrested Nov. 3 on charges of failing to give parliament the oil and gas contracts the government signed with foreign and local investors, according to an article by Kizoto Makoye for the Thompson Reuters Foundation. The Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts instructed police to arrest James […]
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6 November 2014
FOI Notes: Corporate Transparency, Tshwane, India, UK, US, Open Data, More
Corporate Transparency: Transparency International issues a report on Transparency in Corporate Reporting about the websites of the world’s 124 largest publicly traded companies. Also see Guardian article. Tshwane Principles: Open Society Foundations issues “a new and final version of the Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information (the Tshwane Principles) in Spanish. […]
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4 November 2014
China’s Leaders Endorse Disclosure as the `Norm’
By Jamie P. Horsley The author is Executive Director, The China Law Center and Senior Research Scholar, Yale Law School In an important policy decision adopted at the conclusion of a four-day plenary meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee from October 20-23, the Party endorsed disclosure as the norm, with non-disclosure as the […]
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30 October 2014
Indian Order Sparks Debate on Disclosing Requester Info
The recent decision by the Indian government to post online the replies to right to information requests is generating debate over whether requester names should be disclosed. The instruction from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in an Oct. 21 memorandum did not directly address the disclosure of names issue, but those familiar with […]
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30 October 2014
Albania Rewrites Access Law; Changes Considered Positive
A new Albania right to information law has been enacted that supporters called “groundbreaking.” “At last, this reform brings the law on the right to information to the level of advanced legislation in the region and beyond,” said Darian Pavli, senior attorney at the Open Society Justice Initiative in a statement that also credited lobbying […]
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30 October 2014
FOI Notes: UK, India, UK, OGP, Open Budgets, Pakistan, More
United Kingdom: Joe Reddington in a blog post writes about a paper by Alexander J Fowler, and others: “The UK Freedom of Information Act (2000) in healthcare research: a systematic review.“ In an interview, Fowler says among other things: I think the FOI Act is a hugely powerful tool for medical research – especially policy type […]
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29 October 2014
US FOIA Advisory Panel Tackles Variety of Topics
By Lauren Harper The author writes for the National Security Archive Unredacted blog. The FOIA Advisory Committee, established by the second Open Government National Action Plan and tasked to “advise on improvements to FOIA administration,” held itssecond meeting last week. The Committee consists of ten government and ten non-governmental FOIA experts – including the Archive’s FOIA Coordinator Nate Jones […]
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29 October 2014
OGP Sees Promise in New National Action Plans
With a new batch of 30 national action plans to review, Open Government Partnership staffers like what they are seeing. Improvements are being seen in how the plans are being created and in specificity of the commitments. These observations were offered during a presentation in Washington by Joseph Foti, the manager of the Independent Review […]
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29 October 2014
Court Finds Database Redaction Too Burdensome
By Harry Hammit Hammit is publisher of Access Reports, a bi-monthly report on U.S. and Canadian freedom of information legal developments. A ruling by Judge Rudolph Contreras finding that personally identifying information contained in several FTC complaint databases is protected by Exemption 6 (invasion of privacy), while almost certainly correct based on case law interpretation, […]
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29 October 2014
Getting Serious About Protecting Access to Public Email
By Emily Shaw The author is National Policy Manager at the Sunlight Foundation and oversees its state and local policy work. This article was published Oct. 21 on the Sunlight blog. Our legally-protected access to public email records — the most voluminous source of official written records — is failing. Broward County, Fla. charging journalists […]
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28 October 2014
Croatia Pledges to Amend Access to Information Act
Croatia has pledged to amend its freedom of information act to improve its usefulness, according to one point in its latest action plan submitted as part of the Open Government Partnership process The government committed to make changes that would help ensure that its data is high quality and accessible for reuse. “Amendments to the […]