United States: Examples of 50 recent FOIA success stories in the US have been posted by the National Security Archive, the sponsor of FreedomInfo.org.
OGP: “Learning to Open Government: New Evidence to Inform the OGP’s Efforts to Make Change Happen,” a report by Florencia Guerzovich and Michael Moses of Global Integrity, based on the experiences of Albania, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Philippines and Tanzania. Among other conclusions:
-“….our findings reinforce the idea that, as OGP continues to evolve, it will be important to strike a balance between public relations opportunities and getting things done.”
– OGP’s integration with politics is key to results.
World Bank: Freedom of information laws are not mentioned in a speech by Shaolin Yang, World Bank Group Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer, “Tracking Corruption – The Way Forward ,” delivered June 14 in Paris. The speech touches budget transparency, asset declarations and beneficial ownership and other anti-corruption efforts. The Bank recently dissolved the three-person FOI unit. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report and story on subsequent international protest letter.) The Bank is preparing a response to the letter from 130 NGOs.
UNESCO: A new video titled “A world without information? Right to Information and SDGs,” with a focus on freedom of the press.
South Africa: A braille version of the Promotion of Access to Information Act is released by the National Department of Human Settlements and the department intends to make its full PAIA manual available through CD’s for future requesters who wish to listen to it.
World Bank: “Making Politics Work for Development: Harnessing Transparency and Citizen Engagement,” a report whose lead author is Stuti Khemani. The report defines transparency broadly. Among its messages:
– “Transparency can support political engagement in order to overcome government failures. In contrast, transparency initiatives that do not improve political engagement are unlikely to be effective.”
– “The design of transparency is important—the nature and credibility of sources of information, and media through which it is communicated—all matter.”
– “Transparency is most effective when it supports the generation of specific, reliable, and impartial evidence on the performance of leaders tasked with the delivery of public policies.
United Kingdom: “Lies, damn lies, and FOI statistics,” by Paul Gibbons, “aka FOIMan.”
Journalism: “7 lessons from BuzzFeed’s ‘FOIA-friendly newsroom,” by Kelly Hinchcliffe. Here are seven things journalists can learn from BuzzFeed’s public records strategy, abbreviated from the Poynter Institute column.
- Spread seeds and wait patiently
- Understand people’s motivation
- Let the lawyer play ‘bad cop’
- Request records using a ‘one-two punch’
- Share what you know
- Track your success
- Try to improve the public records process for everyone
Canada: “The new government promised to change the outdated access to information system, but it seems to be getting cold feet,” writes Vincent Gogolek, executive director of the British Columbia Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, in Policy Options Politiques.
Malta: The Times of Malta describes how most of its 15 FOIA applications were rejected. Among other things, Malta’s permanent representation in Brussels “has flatly refused to provide lists of lobby meetings, citing exemptions in Malta’s information law,” the paper also wrote.
European Union: EU Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly welcomes increased transparency in the clinical testing of Humira, one of the world’s biggest selling drugs, following her inquiry into the publication of clinical study reports. But she expresses concern about certain parts of four specific clinical trial reports into Humira which were withheld by the European Medicines Agency on the stated grounds of commercial interest and has asked EMA to reconsider these redactions.
United Kingdom/Open Contracting: The government has acted to improve contract transparency, placing a new transparency clause within the updated Model Services Contract – the blueprint used throughout government for major contracts with public sector buyers, reports Pubic Finance.
India: Waseem Abbasi of The News reports that following an order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Punjab police department have been directed to share details of its functioning.
Open Legislatures/United States: Legislation that will enhance Californians’ ability to observe and participate in California’s lawmaking process has been introduced. The California Legislature Transparency Act would requires publication on the internet of each bill, in final form, for at least 72 hours prior to the final vote in the Legislature.
It also would mandate the videotaping of all floor and standing committee proceedings and posting those videos on the internet within one business day, as reported by the Davis Enterprise.
Australia: “A Bill that would have further hampered the public’s right to know about court cases has failed to pass in the South Australia State Parliament,” according to an article in Adelaide Now.
United States: A New York appellate court decision to affirm the New York City Police Department’s decision to “neither confirm nor deny” the existence of records on the surveillance of two Muslim men sets “a troubling legal precedent and a hurdle for open government advocates,” writes Luis Ferre Sadurni for The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press.
United States: A new law in South Carolina will require fraternities and sororities to report conduct violations on their websites.
United States: “Companies frustrated by their inability to mount early round challenges to EPA cleanup decisions are increasingly turning to the Freedom of Information Act for help,” reports Peter Hayes of Bloomberg BNA.
India: Sikkim says it is the first state in India to have an open government data portal, The Times of India reports.
Philippines: “The passage of the Freedom of Information bill is like a missing puzzle piece in the Aquino administration’s fight against corruption,” according to the Rappler’s Raisa Serafica.
Nuclear Transparency: Transparency and accountability are prerequisites for international initiatives to counter the threats of nuclear terrorism, according to Sobia Paracha, a consultant with Islamabad Policy Research Institute. “Surprisingly, the discussion on transparency on nuclear security measures is underemphasized or practically absent.”
Canada: The Saskatchewan government introduces amendments with the aim of improving access to information laws, The Leader Post says.
United States/Connecticut: “Connecticut governor signs bill barring insurer information from subpoena, FOIA,” according to the International Business Times.
United States/Open Data: “Open for Whom? An Overview of Data.Gov File Formats,” by Anne L. Washington and David Morar of George Mason University. Only a low percent of the files were found to meet the top standard criteria, according to a of the research in Fedscoop. The government may be too focused on informing the “English-literate public than the data literate who want machine-readable information.”
Germany/Open Data: A draft German “Open Government Data Standard 2.0” (in German) was on the Joinup platform of the European Commission.
Open Data: Plans are announced and comments sought about possible changes for The Global Open Data Index by Open Knowledge International.
UK/Open Data: “Only four organisations have so far taken advantage of a Solicitors Regulation Authority initiative that gives them access to information about all 10,000 law firms, according to an article in Legal Futures.
European Union: “Courts in Europe are likely to be called on to shape the extent to which businesses can protect their trade secrets under new EU legislation,” according to Emmanuel Gougé, “an expert in trade secrets and intellectual property law at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.”
Open Government: The Open Governance Research Exchange (OGRX) announces New Partners and New Publications.
Corporate Transparency: A column looking at how corporate social innovation can ensure a company provides utmost transparency while also remaining competitive in a global market, published by PSFK, a New York City based trends research and innovation company.
Commentary: “The Hypocrisy Of The Transparency Debate,” by Paolo Gaudiano, Op-Ed Contributor to Media Post, discussing a recent report by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) titled “An Independent Study of Media Transparency in the U.S. Advertising Industry.”
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