What’s New
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23 October 2014
Indian Ministries Told to Post Replies Online by Oct. 31
All Indian government agencies have been told to post online their replies to Right to Information Act requests by the end of the month. The ministry overseeing the administration of the Indian RTI Act on Oct. 21 announced a new website feature that will allow placement of replies on the RTI Online system. Agencies were […]
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23 October 2014
Kenya: Clear Need to Respect the Right of Access to Information
By Riva Jalipa The author is Legal Officer, ARTICLE 19–Eastern Africa. 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 violence that followed the 2007 general elections triggered wide–ranging debates and changes that form the basis of Kenya’s reform agenda today. […]
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23 October 2014
FOI Notes: Personnel Moves, Pakistan Video, US Schools, UK Court Ruling
Personnel: The Ford Foundation announced the appointment of Rakesh Rajani as director of Democratic Participation and Governance. Rajani currently serves as the head of Twaweza in Tanzania and was the lead civil society chair for the Open Government Partnership. He will begin his new position in New York on Jan. 5. Personnel: Transparency International has […]
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23 October 2014
50 US Groups Press Obama to Back FOI Legislation
Concerned that the Obama administration has been largely mute on a pending bipartisan bill to reform the Freedom of Information Act, 50 groups Oct. 23 urged him to voice his support. The bill has support from both Republican and Democratic legislators, has already passed the House and would appear to have a god chance of passage, […]
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23 October 2014
Liberia: Law Implementation and Exclusion of Access
By Malcolm Joseph The author is Executive Director, Center for Media Studies and Peace Building. This is a chapter in the recently issued State of Right to Information in Africa Report 2014 and is reprinted with permission. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) Liberia is struggling to rebuild after 15 years of civil war in the 90s and 2000s. In […]
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23 October 2014
Carnegie Commentators Score Use of Four Principles
“Four key principles—accountability, transparency, participation, and inclusion—have in recent years become nearly universal features of the policy statements and programs of international development organizations. Yet this apparently widespread new consensus is deceptive: behind the ringing declarations lie fundamental fissures over the value and application of these concepts. Understanding and addressing these divisions is crucial to […]
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23 October 2014
El Salvadoran Court Orders Open Proceedings on Judges
The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice in El Salvador has decided administrative proceedings against judges must be transparent. The court ruled that the Access to Information Act, through its article 110, tacitly abolishes the provision (article 70 of the Judicial Career Act of 1990) that established the confidentiality of the administrative punitive […]
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21 October 2014
Analyzing FOI Law Compliance in Four Nigerian Agencies
This report is reprinted from the website of the Cleen Foundation. To download the full report, visit www.cleen.org In March 2014, the Access Nigeria (AccessNG) project trained and deployed 12 representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs) to collaboratively access information from the government agencies at the fore of the fight against corruption and trans-national organized crimes […]
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20 October 2014
Making Transparency Policies Work
By Alasdair Roberts The author is Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School, Boston USA This is his address to the International Seminar on Accountability and Corruption Control, Mexico City, Oct. 21, 2014. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. […]
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16 October 2014
Report Paints Bleak Picture of Indian RTI Law at 10th Year
A comprehensive and scathing report on the Indian Right to Information documents extensive weaknesses in the system and makes major recommendations for reform. The 150-page examination provides a detailed picture of dysfunction, including “huge” backlogs, an ineffectual appeals process, lack of compliance with orders and penalty awards, and weak records management. The research provides many […]
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16 October 2014
UN Panel Told That Angola Needs Better Implementation
Angola is not doing enough to implement its right to information law, according to a statement made by the Africa Freedom of Information Centre to a United Nations body. The statement was made by Gilbert Sendugwa, AFIC’s Coordinator & Head of Secretariat, at an Oct. 7 meeting under the auspices of the Human Rights Council. […]
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16 October 2014
FOI Notes: Nordics, World Bank Webcasts, Open Data
Nordic Transparency: Access to Information in the Nordic Countries, a comparison of the laws of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland and international rules by Oluf Jørgensen (Nordicom, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg 2014, 40 pages.) “This publication explains and compares the legal rules determining public access to documents and data in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, […]
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15 October 2014
Ireland Amendments Extend Reach of FOI Law
Revisions to the freedom of information law signed Oct. 14 by the Irish president will bring more public bodies under the Irish FOI umbrella. The new legislation, known as the Freedom of Information Act, 2014, will apply to: An Garda Síochána, the Irish police force. Public financial bodies, including NAMA, the National Asset Management Agency […]
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15 October 2014
Ethiopia Criminalizes Free Flow of Information
By Riva Jalipa The author is Legal Officer for ARTICLE 19–Eastern Africa. 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.) Ethiopia’s commitment and respect for African institutions and mechanisms is not in doubt. It is the home to the African Union […]
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15 October 2014
Beware Attack on Openness
By Alasdair Roberts The author is a professor of law at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. His latest book is The End of Protest: How Free-Market Capitalism Learned to Control Dissent (Cornell University Press). His website. Six years have passed since the financial collapse of 2008. We liberated global financial markets to rule themselves, […]
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14 October 2014
Freedom of Information as a Fundamental Right
By Aiden O’Neill The author is a member of Matrix Chambers in London. 1. Introduction 1.1 One aspect of the rule of law in the context of the information age is the ideal of transparency: that members of civil society should be able to ascertain the factual and legal bases on which official decisions are being […]
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14 October 2014
Argentina’s Supreme Court Backs RTI for Legislator
The Supreme Court of Justice from Argentina on Oct. 14 issued two decisions supporting the right of access to information. In both cases the defendant, the national government, said that the plaintiff, a national congressman, was not entitled to ask for public information, because he had require it as a legislator. The Court, however, said […]
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14 October 2014
OGP Working Groups Seek to Clarify Their Missions
The five working groups of the Open Government Partnership are seeking clarification on their roles in order “to facilitate and amplify their efforts,” according to the minutes of two meetings released Oct. 14. The topic was one of many policy and procedure topics addressed at an OGP Steering Committee session held Sept. 24 in New […]
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9 October 2014
Japan Wrongly Blames U.S. For Repressive Japanese Secrecy Law
By Morton Halperin and Molly Hofsommer Halperin is Senior Advisor to the Open Society Foundations and Hofsammer is an OSF Research Assistant. Their article was published Oct. 5 in The Huffington Post. In Japan, a draconian secrecy law that will severely limit public debate on national security issues is about to go into effect. Not […]
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9 October 2014
Reports Finds Few Donors Meeting Transparency Goals
Many international aid organizations are “dragging their feet” in meeting commitments to make their finances more transparent, according to a report released Oct. 8. The Aid Transparency Index 2014 report evaluates how well countries and other international aid donors are doing in fulfilling transparency commitments made at the 2011 Busan development summit. “This is a […]