Australia: “Environmental groups have applied to have the jaws of two great white sharks that were killed after a shark attack off the West Australian coast last year released under freedom of information (FOI) laws,” according to an article in The Guardian. “It’s the first attempt in Australia to use the FOI act to access physical objects.
United Kingdom: “FoI at ten: How all journalists can use the Freedom of Information Act to find great exclusives,” an article in The Press Gazette by Guy Basnett and Paul McNamara.
Video: A discussion on FOI sponsored by Global Voices. Speakers are: Marietta Le, journalist at Atlatszo.hu; Malou Mangahas, Executive Director, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism; and Juan Tadeo, Independent blogger based in Mexico.
Surveillance Transparency: A submission by the Centre for Law and Democracy to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression notes the importance of encryption and anonymity tools to online speech and sets out five key Principles which should guide future discussions on these issues. “The Principles include a significant need for transparency around surveillance measures, robust procedural oversight over intelligence and surveillance authorities, controls on the export of advanced surveillance technology to repressive States and the need for surveillance activities to be limited and targeted and, in particular, to strike an appropriate balance between security needs and the rights to freedom of expression and privacy.”
South Africa: The Constitutional Court hears arguments about whether Parliament should pass a law compelling political parties to make their donations public, as described in an article in The Mail & Guardian.
Open Data: The Omidyar Network is launching a research project on “Open Data: Demand, Use, and Impact.” The first phase involves the development of case studies on the impact of open data. See the terms of reference here. ON is seeking to hire a researcher or research team to create a repository of case studies on the impact of open data.
United States: ?The State Integrity Investigation II project, a collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity, will examine government transparency and anti-corruption mechanisms in all 50 states.
United States: The government has issued a 2014 Fiscal Transparency Report which assesses the fiscal transparency of 140 governments that were potential beneficiaries of U.S. foreign assistance.
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