EU: Moldova has ratified the 2009 Convention on Access to Official Documents, brining to nine the number of other ratifications to bring it into force. Armenia is expected to ratify it soon.
Holland: Open State Foundation sends an open letter to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and party leaders in the Dutch parliament urging creation of a so-called “single decentralised datalist” with all data that municipalities and provinces share with other governments and to make these data available in an open structured and standardised format. The Foundation also found that most open data that is available concerns people but only few datasets deal with government performance itself. Noting delay in enacting a draft law on open government in practice while an impact analysis is performed, the Foundation suggested putting the draft law in practice by a voluntary test implementation by a municipality, regional authority or other government agency.
Bulgaria: The Access to Information Project launches a fundraising campaign in support of its mission to assist the exercise of the right to information on the occasion of the Right to Know Day.
India: Around 2,000 central government organizations will soon be accepting applications under the RTI Act through online medium, according to a report in Millennium Post. The Department of Personnel and Training has to train nodal officers.
Cambodia: UNESCO’s Cambodia representative Anne Lemaistre said UNESCO monitors will make sure that a planned FOI law will be implemented. “Currently, a committee of officials from the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Justice, UNESCO and a handful of CSOs meet monthly to discuss and review the draft law,” Maza reported in The Phnom Penh Post. “We advocated for the government to have an independent commission to oversee the law, but we haven’t seen any signal from the government on how they will react to this,” said Transparency International Cambodia’s Preap Kol.
Kenya: The implementation of the new ATI law are discussed in a Daily Nation column by John Walubengo, a lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT.
Aid Transparency: “Despite the Rhetoric, US Foreign Assistance Still Not Transparent,” writes Vijaya Ramachandran for the Center for Global Development.
Canada: Toronto Star journalist Jayme Poisson, the 2016 recipient of the Greg Clark Award, will spend four days in [Canada’s Information Commissioner’s] office in September to better understand the inner workings of access-to-information requests and complaints, the commissioner writes.
Tanzania: Alfred Sebahene writes in The Citizen about the challenges that follow passage of an ATI law. His comments include:
So is the government willing to tell citizens that the right to information may imply, but is not be limited to the inspection of documents and records; taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents and taking certified samples of materials held by public authorities?
This is where the challenge lies. The right to accurate information and timely communication could rock both citizens’ and government’s comfort zones.
Philippines: Grace Poe, the chair of the Senate committee on public information and mass media plans to examine the more than 100 exceptions listed in the Executive Order on Freedom of Information issued by President Rodrigo Duterte, reports The Manila Times.
Namibia: Information deputy minister Stanley Simataa said there is a growing need for the country’s laws to be translated into indigenous languages for the masses to access information easily, reports The Nimbian.
Ghana: “The former Commissioner for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Justice Emile Short has shot down government’s claim that it has done enough to fight corruption,” Ghana Web reports.
Environmental Transparency: A US State Department summary of a Joint Declaration on Harnessing the Data Revolution for Climate Resilience. It includes: “Embracing common technical standards, open climate data standards, data interoperability, capacity-building efforts, and best practices for improving access to data that inform climate resilience decisions and help monitor progress.”
India: Download the RTI Handbook for Tamil.
India: An official has been given a large fine ($2,163 in a country with per capita income of $1,497) for failing to give information under the RTI)Act in 24 separate instances. The fine was assessed by the Karnataka Information Commission, according to The Deccan Herald.
Deliberative Process: A discussion triggered by US academician and former Obama administration official Cass Sunstein continues, with commentary by Tom Steinberg of Civicist. The headline says: “We need to find a language that allows us to differentiate honest, disinterested debate over policy options from special-interest lobbying and campaign-finance blackmail.”
United States: The gas industry is seeking to change Virginia state law to protect information about chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, Travis Fain reports in The Daily Press.
United States: “In a major victory for journalists and privacy and transparency advocates, a federal court has started the process of unsealing secret records related to the government’s use of electronic surveillance,” according to Jason Leopold in Vice.
United States: Steven Aftergood, editor of Secrecy News, writes: “Public discussion of the Edward Snowden case has mostly been a dialog of the deaf, with defenders and critics largely talking past each other at increasing volume. But the disagreements became sharper and more interesting over the past week.”
Another column, reflecting on Snowden and privacy, appeared in The Hill, by the director of the Washington Media Institute, Amos Gelb, titled, “For the sake of transparency, let’s protect privacy.”
Also read Daniel Schuman article, “No More Snowdens? Start by Reforming the House Intelligence Committee.”
United States: A summary of ideas by FOI officials for improving FOIA processes.
United States: An update on the survey of state laws on body cameras worn by law enforcement officers is published by the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press.
United States: The Sunlight Foundation announces the end of its search for a new director, layoffs and an intention to merge with other organizations.
Budget Transparency: The International Budget Partnership released new data with important updates on budget transparency practices in 102 countries, discussed in an OGP blog post by Vivek Ramkumar.
India: A book by former Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Rajesh Tandon, “Right to Information law and Practice,” published by Lexis Nexis.
Ireland: Dublin firm Mason Hayes & Curran publishes a revised edition of its Freedom of Information Sourcebook, a comprehensive annotated guide to the Freedom of Information Acts in Ireland. The sourcebook was originally published in 2011 is available for purchase from the firm.
Jamaica: The government Access to Information Unit says it has facilitated improvement in the compliance and reporting mechanisms for government ministries, departments and agencies, according to The Jamaica Observer.
Gambia: An article in The Point describe the campaign of the Gambia Press Union for access to access to information and freedom of expression, beginning with a two-day seminar with National Assembly members.
India: A newspaper in Nagpur, the third largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra, writes about RTI requesters who “are found unleashing a kind of terror in the civic body” by demanding money not to expose discovered information.
Open Data: A new book, “The Global Impact of Open Data,” by Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young. “This comprehensive 459-page report, developed with support from Omidyar Network, presents detailed case studies of open data projects throughout the world, along with in-depth analysis of what works and what doesn’t.” according to a description. The authors are both with The GovLab at New York University.
Transparency Research: The Making All Voices Count programme’s Research, Evidence and Learning Component is publishing a wide range of research and learning relevant to the OGP community over the next 14 months. See list of projects. Sign up for a regular email newsletter. See September issue.
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