Zambia: The Civil Society Coalition on Access to Information Law urges speeding up the process of enacting an access to information law despite the failed referendum on the Bill of Rights, reports The Lusaka Times.
Nigeria: Right to Know Nigeria reports widespread non-compliance with the 2011 FOIA, issuing a report stating that “ministries, departments and agencies are not implementing the provisions of the Act.” Also see Daily Trust article.
France: A new “Digital Republic” law took effect Oct. 8 adding source code to the list of government document types that must be released in certain circumstances. See article in PC World.
SDG 16.10: Oct. 18 is the deadline for comments on how to measure the ATI component of the Sustainable Development Goals. Xee previous FreedomInfo.org article.
India: In the first decade of the RTI Act, 17.5 million requests were filed, with a quarter of them directed at the federal government, according to a study conducted by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. This is a conservative estimate because many departments don’t file their compliance report. CHRI’s Venkatesh Nayak said: “The number of RTI applications needs to reduce. For this, the governments need to identify frequently asked questions and proactively disclose that information.” See article in The Economic Times.
Pakistan: The pending draft law is ”just average,” according to an RTI Rating assessment by the Centre for Democracy and Law.
Denmark: Controversial restrictions on the release of predecisional materials have in practice proved to be significantly restrictive, according to ombudsman Joergen Steen Soerensen said in a statement, according to an article in Altinget, one in Information and another in Politiken (in Danish). Separately, a Politiken article says Justice Minister Søren Pind is ready to renegotiate the law
Philippines: The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition (R2KRN) cites the issuance of Executive Order No. 2 on the Freedom of Information as a good start, but stresses that so much more has yet to be done to guarantee the full enjoyment of the people’s right to know, according to a statement.
Privacy/Transparency Principles: Access Info Europe and Stiftung Neue Verantwortung announced “a global initiative to develop a set of principles on how to ensure that there is an appropriate balance between the right of access to information and the right to privacy in measures to promote government transparency, including access to information laws and open data polices.” The draft 10 principles and the process for developing them were launched at the International Open Data Conference in Madrid on Oct. 6.
Contest: Video entries from Latin America and the Caribbean are invited for a “Principle 10 Video/Animation Competition.” The announcement says, “You are encouraged to use your VOICE in a 3 minute video to tell how important it is for our rights of access to information, participation and justice regarding environmental matters are upheld.” Up to US $1,200 in prizes. The prizes for this competition are supported by the Ministry of Environment Land and Sea of Italy. Get the full guidelines and registration form at www.lacp10.org.
India: A new book is published, “RTI Act -Authentic Interpretation of the Statute,” by Shailesh Gandhi and Pralhad Kachare. The preface states in part:
Some misinterpretations of the words in the law have developed and been carried forward. It is hoped that this book will help all stakeholders look closely at the law and follow it. This will empower the citizen to participate in our democracy more meaningfully. Hopefully, this book will start a ‘samvad’ (dialogue) on the true meaning of the RTI Act.
Liberia: The Independent Information Commission has fined the Paynesville City Corporation Six Thousand Liberian dollars (LD 6,000) for violating the FOIA, according to Front Page Africa.
OGP: The minutes of the September Steering Committee meeting are posted.
FOI Success Stories: From India, an article in DNA by Ashutosh Shukla describes how 70-year-old Sushila Pasad used RTI to obtain an overdue tax refund. For more FOI success stories, on many topics, read the Freedominfo.org collection here.
United States: A collection of success stories by reporter Jason Leopold using the FOIA.
United States: Putting body cameras on members of Congress would bring more transparency to and help curb corruption, according to one candidate, Jason Lindstrom (D) of Arizona. Lindstrom committed to wearing a body camera for the duration of his term.
Open Data: 10 takeaways from the 2016 International Open Data Conference, by Alex Howard of the Sunlight Foundation. One takeaway:
- Openwashing and openwishing. In 2016, what we wish open data will be in the world should be tempered with the experiences of the past decade, from successes to failures to the muddles in between. Similarly, politicians shouldn’t be allowed to claim credit for thousands of datasets on thousands of platforms that comprise links and PDFs with poor quality data, nor substitute publication of open data that’s useful for economic outcomes for those that are relevant to accountability. When a host country has yet to meet many of its own commitments to freedom of information, open data and open government, openwashing represents a risk to legitimacy that shouldn’t be brushed away. When Russia’s open data working group has a place in the discussion, it’s worth remembering that the country is a case study for how open data can be focused on services without press freedom, revealing corruption or holding power to account.
Open Data: Among other new things, the Open Data Resource Centre includes a report on the challenges and opportunities in data use based on research conducted by the Center for Open Data Enterprise, an independent nonprofit organization that develops smarter open data strategies for governments, businesses, and other nonprofits by focusing on data users.
United States: Read FOIA research articles in a special issue of Communication Law & Policy focused on the 50th anniversary of FOIA. If you can’t get access to the articles, the authors might be up for emailing you a copy. Access may be available through a subscribing academic institution, but otherwise costs $41 per article.
The People’s Right to Know: Comparing Harold L. Cross’ Pre-FOIA World to Post-FOIA Today
David Cuillier, University of Arizona, cuillier@email.arizona.edu
Journalists and politicians often disagree over whether the state of freedom of information is better or worse since the passage of the Freedom of Information Act in 1966. This study attempts to provide some historical context by comparing the state of access in 1953 as outlined in detail in The People’s Right to Know by Harold L. Cross, the first comprehensive review of case law and statutes in the United States regarding access to public records at local, state and federal agencies. Analysis indicates that the legal right to information, particularly for police records and federal documents, is better today than it was in 1953, but challenges persist regarding compliance, enforcement and the prevalence of exemptions. Recommendations are provided for the next fifty years, including renewal of Cross’ urging for a First Amendment right to know.
The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act: How it Measures up Against International Standards and Other Laws
Toby Mendel, toby@law-democracy.org
When the United States adopted its Freedom of Information Act in 1966, it was the third country in the world to put in place such a groundbreaking democratic mechanism for ensuring public access to the information held by government. As such, it was, by definition, a global leader in this area. Fifty years later, however, according to the internationally recognized tool for assessing legal frameworks for what has come to be known as the right to information, or RTI, the RTI Rating, the United States FOIA languishes in the fifty-first position globally. This article describes the way the RTI Rating works and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the FOIA according to the rating. In some cases, these weaknesses appear to be derived, at least in part, from the age of the FOIA, and a correlation can be found between the performance of the United States law and other older laws. In other cases, further study is needed to identify the causes of the weaknesses.
The News Media and the FOIA
Derigan Silver, University of Denver, Centre for Law and Democracy, Derigan.silver@du.edu
Journalists were at the forefront of the effort to pass the Freedom of Information Act. News organizations were intrinsically involved in crafting the legislation and were a key factor in making sure the law was passed. For many reasons, however, FOIA has frequently failed to meet the news media’s needs. One reason the law is failing is because journalists do not use it nearly as much as non-media requesters, a fact that stands in stark contrast to the history and purpose of the law. The purpose of this article is to explore data on who uses FOIA. In addition, it examines reasons journalists are not using the law, offers some practical reforms that could improve FOIA, and suggests advice on how journalists could better craft their FOIA requests. It also concludes, however, that despite its flaws, journalists are still using FOIA to write stories that advance self-government and the watchdog function of the press, and there is reason to believe a new generation of journalists are using FOIA in new and inventive ways.
Bringing Back Full Disclosure: A Call for Dismantling FOIA
Daxton “Chip” Stewart, Texas Christian University, d.stewart@tcu.edu, and Charles N. Davis, University of Georgia, cndavis@uga.edu
The Freedom of Information Act began as a tool for ensuring full disclosure of federal government agencies, but it has consistently failed to live up to these expectations. Despite frequent amendments, FOIA remains a law rooted in an era of paper record-keeping, where files are created and stored by government, protected from release by decades of judicial expansion of exemptions, and remain largely hidden from public scrutiny. Modern computing technology should allow much easier and broader access for citizens, but FOIA needs radical transformation to reclaim its purpose. This article calls for a structural overhaul of FOIA focusing on proactive transparency, taking advantage of modern record-keeping technology such as open government portals and automation to enable citizen access to records as early as possible. Exceptions should be narrow and applied at the moment a record is created, and incentives should shift to favor disclosure in the face of agency inaction or delay.
Controlling Discourse, Foreclosing Recourse: The Creep of the Glomar Response
A.Jay Wagner, Bradley University, awagner@bradley.edu
The Glomar response to Freedom of Information Act requests – “we can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records responsive to your request” – was the product of extraordinary circumstances, to be applied sparingly by the federal government in withholding national security information. Since 2013, instances of state and local use of the Glomar response have signaled a potentially problematic expansion. Establishment of non-federal agency use of the Glomar response poses the threat of an exponential increase in the practice, making oversight difficult. This article considers the recent use of the Glomar response in four cases in which state or local agencies utilized the reply to withhold law enforcement records. The origin and case law of the Glomar response, methods for compelling disclosure after a Glomar response are considered, before a discussion of potential threats of expansion and productive paths forward.
Commentary: “The Case for Transparency,” a blog post by the Freedom Online Coalition
Transparency Research/Italy: “Open Government Data Ecosystems: Linking Transparency for Innovation with Transparency for Participation and Accountability,” by Luigi Reggi and Sharon Dawes. Download PDF
Abstract:
The rhetoric of open government data (OGD) promises that data transparency will lead to multiple public benefits: economic and social innovation, civic participation, public-private collaboration, and public accountability. In reality much less has been accomplished in practice than advocates have hoped. OGD research to address this gap tends to fall into two streams – one that focuses on data publication and re-use for purposes of innovation, and one that views publication as a stimulus for civic participation and government accountability – with little attention to whether or how these two views interact. In this paper we use an ecosystem perspective to explore this question. Through an exploratory case study we show how two related cycles of influences can flow from open data publication. The first addresses transparency for innovation goals, the second addresses larger issues of data use for public engagement and greater government accountability. Together they help explain the potential and also the barriers to reaching both kinds of goals.
Transparency Research: A call for papers is issued for the 2017 conference of the International Research Society in Public Management, to be held in Hungary. One panel will be on “transparency and open government. The says “specific attention will be given to contributions focusing on the increasing number of ‘blind spots’ of transparency; those situation in which the might of transparency has been curtailed either through organisational changes (service delivery by private or non-profit entities), political and financial decisions (disinvestment in transparency mechanisms), policy development (internationalisation), sector specific trends (growth and opacity of the security and military sector), or by the very growth of transparency itself. In the same way, civil society’s increasing demands for transparency, including from political institutions (government, parliament) can be considered.”
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