Pakistan: Pildat, an independent, non-partisan and not-for-profit indigenous research and training institution with the mission to strengthen democracy and democratic institutions in Pakistan has published a report “Activating Right to Information in South Asia,” by Nikhil Dey, co-convener of the National Campaign on People’s Right to Information, India. Among other messages, Dey writes: “The RTI needs wider dissemination in order to be able to spread its message. There are now too many users with too many stories to find space in the mainstream media.”
Canada: The information commissioner is taking the Prime Minister’s Office to court, accusing it of refusing to release documents about four senators embroiled in scandal, according to an article in The Huffington Post.
India: The Punjab News Express reports that Punjab Chief Information Commissioner, Dr. S.S. Channy, IAS (Retd.) said that digitalization of records should take place at fast pace and intensive training should be provided to service providers. He was speaking about “The Right to Information Act: The Punjab Experience.”
Pakistan: The federal government should follow the positive example set by KP and Punjab provinces in implementing RTI legislation, experts said at a seminar, The Nation reported.
India: The director-general of the Indian National Crime Records Bureau says that the bureau cannot separately capture the number of murders of RTI users, social activists, whistleblowers and media persons, Counterview reports. The Times of India runs an article about the dangers facing RTI activists. Also, four charts that show it is not safe to be an RTI activist.
United States: The ombudsman issues a report saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency needs to improve management and oversight controls; should take steps to fully benefit from investments in technology to improve tracking, processing, and proactive disclosure; and should improve communication.
OGP: The civil society members of the OGP steering committee announce the inaugural OGP Government Champion Award. Nominations are requested for government offices, departments, or teams that are going “above and beyond” the Partnership’s expectations with respect to partnering with civil society “to genuinely co-create National Action Plans and co-monitor their implementation.”
Immigration Transparency: At the Western Balkans OGP Dialogue 2015 conference held in Tirana, Albania, government and civil society members of the OGP issue a declaration calling upon “governments and civil society organizations of OGP member countries that experience immigration or transition of refugees, to act upon that humanitarian and human rights crisis in the spirit of proactive openness.” The declaration recommends that, “Every country should create a special info site dedicated to this issue that will aggregate all related data that refugees, activists and state employees can benefit from. Namely, articles from the laws and regulations that deal with refugees rights, immigrant rights, unaccompanied children issue, social and health protection, trafficking prevention, alongside with the comprehensive list of contacts for governmental and civil society services that provide assistance or protection.”
United Kingdom: A DFID evaluation looks at DFID’s empowerment and accountability projects to understand what works, for whom, in what contexts and why.
Right to Be Forgotten: France’s chief data protection authority rejects Google’s appeal of an order that requires the company to apply the European Union’s “right to be forgotten” mandate to all of Google’s search domains worldwide. Google must either comply with the formal order or face potential sanctions, France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) says in a statement issued Sept. 21.
Right to Be Forgotten: The US House Judiciary Committee approves a bill (H.R. 1428) which would grant European Union citizens limited access to U.S. courts to allege government misuse of their personal data transferred to the U.S. Passage of the bill is a prerequisite for a U.S.-EU law enforcement data-sharing agreement, according to a Bloomberg-BNA article.
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