India: “A new movement demanding an Accountability Bill has emerged from Rajasthan, where activist Nikhil Dey of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, along with Suchna Evam Rozgar Abhiyan, is on a ‘Jawab Do’ campaign,” according to an article in The Times of India.
Corporate Transparency: India has the most transparent companies while Chinese firms are the most opaque, according to a Transparency International report, according to a New York Times article. TI said: “Transparency in Corporate Reporting: Assessing Emerging Market Multinationals shows that emerging market multinationals still have a long way to go until they can call themselves responsible global citizens. Their transparency standards remain low – 75 of 100 companies measured scored less than 5 out of 10 – suggesting they are ill-equipped for the post-Panama Papers era where corporate secrecy is no longer considered acceptable.”
European Union: The European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, has called on the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission to further increase the transparency of law-making in the EU by publishing key documents related to their informal negotiations known as “trilogies.” The Ombudsman’s decision is available here.
Turkey: “Promising New Ruling on Limits of Administrative Bodies’ Discretion Regarding Right to Access to Information,” an article by attorney Gönenç Gürkaynak.
Transparent Rulemaking: The World Bank has published the new 2016 dataset of the Global Indicators of Regulatory Governance. “This unique measure of transparency and quality of rulemaking is composed of over 15,000 data points covering 185 countries. It is produced by the World Bank in collaboration with government officials and private sector regulatory experts around the world.”
European Union: Access Info Europe has denounced the European Council’s recurrent lack of detail in its record-keeping, something highlighted by the shockingly minimalist minutes of the 17-18 March 2016 European Council meeting during which the so-called EU-Turkey “agreement” was concluded.
Russia: Journalists, bloggers and civil society activists from the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova can apply for free training on FOI laws at the Prince Oldenburgsky Law School’s Summer School, organized in partnership with the American Bar Association (ABA ROLI), that will take place Aug. 7 to 12 in Moscow, Russia. The organizers will cover travel, accommodations and meals. The deadline is July 22. For more information (in Russian), click here.
Open Contracting/Canada: The Quebec access to information commission orders the city of Montreal to make the losing bids on municipal contracts public, The Montreal Gazette reports.
India: Vice-President Hamid Ansari Monday says a strong message needs to be sent out by awarding “exemplary punishment” to the perpetrators of violence on RTI activists, The Indian Express reports. “Ansari listed intimidation and threats to information seekers, lack of adequate public awareness, especially in rural areas and lack of proper system to manage and disseminate information as constraints in effective implementation of the RTI Act.” He was quoted as saying, “We also have to rid ourselves of the old mindset regarding secrecy of government processes and transactions.”
United States: The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on FOIA, see video and testimony here. See article about the hearing by Sophia Murguia of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press.
United States: The request site Muckrock announces plans “to catalog and explain the exceptions both the federal and state governments are using to deny requests.”
Israel: UN secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he was deeply concerned by Israel’s passage of the NGO Transparency Law, The Jerusalem Post reports.
United States/Research: “Exceptions and exemptions to the FOI law over time often favored the industries that lobbied heavily for information to be withheld,” according to University of Arizona journalism professors researchers Jeannine Relly and Carol Schwalbe who described their findings in an article, “How Business Lobby Networks Shaped the U.S. Freedom of Information Act: An Examination of 60 Years of Congressional Testimony,” in the academic journal Government Information Quarterly.
United States: “After 50 years, the Freedom of Information Act needs updating,” by Nikita Lalwani, a former staff editor at Foreign Affairs and freelance writer, and Sam Winter-Levy, a staff editor at Foreign Affairs.
Commentary/United States: “Can Government Be Too Transparent?” by Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene. They write: “More information isn’t always better. Some things are better kept secret.”
United States: “Five simple tips to make you a better FOIA requester. Looking to break into the world of public records?” by Beryl Lipton in Muckrock. Be not afraid. Be specific. Be prepared to provide proof of death. Familiarize yourself with the local law. Be prepared to follow up, provide the tracking number, and wait.
Open Data: The UK-France Data Innovation Taskforce has published a series of recommendations on how the two countries could work together to use data to stimulate economic growth and improve society
Open Data: A guide to creating local data intermediaries, published by the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP), “a peer learning network of local organizations that share a mission to improve low-income neighborhoods by empowering residents and local institutions to use data in their community building and policymaking.”
European Union: The European Commission seeks proposals in the field of data-driven news production. “Applicants are invited to submit proposals to increase reporting on European issues, from a pan-European viewpoint and/or by comparing different viewpoints from within Europe.”
Environmental Transparency: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has expanded access to information on multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) through the online portal, InforMEA, which houses information on more than 60 treaties, 10,000 conference of the parties (COP) decisions, 5,000 national reports, 500 national plans, 3,700 national contacts, 3,000 websites and over 500 searchable terms.
Innovative Governance: The OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) announces “a new partnership with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation for the World Government Summit to conduct a review of the ways central governments are transforming their operations and improving the lives of their people.” To help drive the agenda for the 2017 World Government Summit to be held February 12-14, 2017; OPSI and the World Government Summit are collecting examples of government innovations that are at the “edge” of current practice: initiatives that have received little or no global coverage to date but point to new ways of designing and implementing policies or running the machinery of government.
NATO: “After NATO Summit, Transparency Must Accompany the Tanks,” according to an article in Defense One by Karolina Maclachlan and Katherine Dixon.
Open Science: A US radio report by On the Media on a call by gene modification scientist Kevin Evelt’s call to open all experiments to public scrutiny.
Transparency Research: “Does Transparency Lead to Pay Compression?” by Alexandre Mas of Princeton University
Abstract: This paper asks whether pay disclosure in the public sector changes wage setting at the top of the public sector distribution. I examine a 2010 California mandate that required municipal salaries to be posted online. Among top managers, disclosure led to approximately 7 percent average compensation declines, and a 75 percent increase in their quit rate, relative to managers in cities that had already disclosed salaries. The wage cuts were largely nominal. Wage cuts were larger in cities with higher initial compensation, but not in cities where compensation was initially out of line with (measured) fundamentals. The response is more consistent with public aversion to high compensation than the effects of increased accountability.
European Union: The European Commission issues a call for proposals in the field of data-driven news production.
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