What’s New
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14 April 2016
Judge Orders Disclosures Based on Ghana Constitution
In the absence of a national freedom of information law, a High Court of Justice court in Ghana has ordered the disclosure of documents based on an article in the Constitution. “Until the RTI Act is passed, This is it!” said one of the winning lawyers, Kofi Bentil, in a Facebook message. Justice Anthony Yeboah said that the right […]
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14 April 2016
Three US Legislators Draft Open Data Legislation
Several US legislators are planning to introduce legislation designed to open up more government data in useable formats. “Specifically, this bill defines open data without locking in yesterday’s technology; creates standards for making federal government data available to the public; requires the federal government to use open data to improve decision making; and ensures accountability […]
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14 April 2016
FOI Notes: Aid Transparency, OGP, TA&I, Gambia, Bahamas, India, Open Data, US, UK, Australia
Aid Transparency: The 2016 Aid Transparency Index released by Publish What You Fund shows that only 10 donors, responsible for only a quarter of all aid, are achieving the international transparency standard. However, most of the organizations covered fall into the lowest three categories, scoring below 60% and “demonstrating that the publication of timely, comparable […]
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14 April 2016
Challenges to implementing RTI laws in Asia
By Gambhir Bhatta The author is Technical Advisor (Governance), Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department at the Asian Development Bank. This article was published on the Asian Development Blog. In recent years there has been one critical instrument to making governments more responsive to citizens in how they provide services – the right to information. […]
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14 April 2016
Is RTI Bill Sri Lanka Leaving Victims Behind?
By Gehan Gunatilleke The author is a human rights lawyer based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the Research Director of Verité Research. He is the author of The Right to Information in Sri Lanka: A Guide for Advocates (2014). He is also a Commonwealth scholar at New College, University of Oxford. Follow him on twitter […]
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13 April 2016
Right to Information – Is it catching on in Bangladesh?
By Shamsul Bari and Ruhi Naz The writers are Chairman, Research Initiatives, Bangladesh (RIB) and Project Coordinator (RTI Section) of RIB, respectively. This article originally appeared April 13, 2016, in The Daily Star. There are different ways to measure how the Right to Information (RTI) regime is working in a country. A common measure is to […]
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13 April 2016
Right to Information and Blackmailing
By Er Irfan Ali Banka The author was working as Junior Engineer (Civil) for the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir “but felt it necessary to resign on 29th of January, 2016, because of huge corruption in the departments.” I work as a Social/RTI Activist. I am Founder & Secretary, In-Minds Society (J&K) and also District Coordinator, […]
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7 April 2016
Lawsuits Challenge Constitutionality of Proposed Sri Lankan RTI Law
A handful of lawsuits have been filed challenging the constitutionality of the proposed right to information legislation in Sri Lanka. Under Sri Lankan procedures, the challenges will be heard by the Supreme Court before legislative action proceeds. The Sri Lankan government presented an RTI bill to parliament in March. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) Various amendments […]
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7 April 2016
Nicaraguan FOI Law Ignored by Government, Article Says
“Despite being one of the first pieces of legislation that President Ortega signed into law in 2007, journalists and other organizations agree that the Law of Access to Public Information (LAIP by its initials in Spanish) does not work: the agencies do not release the information and no institution forces them to do so,” according to an article […]
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7 April 2016
New Canadian Government Delays FOI Reform Plans
The new Liberal government in Canada has decided to delay for two years making promised reforms to the Access to Information Act, according to a top official quoted an article by Jim Bronskill in The Globe and Mail and another, by Alexander Boutilier, in Cambridge Times Some short-term fixes, however, could be on the way soon, […]
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7 April 2016
Montenegro Plan to Open Public Records Doubted
Montenegro’s plans to rewrite its Freedom of Information Act are drawing criticisms, according to an article by Dusica Tomovic of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. “Montenegro is reforming its Freedom of Information Act in line with EU demands – but some NGOs suspect access to public records will stay limited due to a lack of political […]
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7 April 2016
FOI Notes: Beneficial Ownership, Recordkeeping, Europe, US, Whisky, More
Europe: Access Info Europe and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) release a report based on showing that in most European jurisdictions data on company ownership is almost impossible for the public to obtain. Beneficial Ownership: The Panama papers stories from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) sparks massive reaction, too many to chronicle, but here […]
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6 April 2016
Vietnam Assembly Passes Access to Information Law
The Vietnamese National Assembly on April 6 approved an access to information law, according to an April 6 VNExpress article by Hoang Thuy, Vo Hai and Vuong Anh. The law was backed by 437 of the 448 deputies who cast their votes. Now that the National Assembly has adopted it, the government and Ministry of […]
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6 April 2016
Dostup do Pravdy: the secret of FOI success
This article was originally posted April 1 on the website of mySociety, the UK NGO that developed the FOI software Alaveteli. Last week, Ukrainian Freedom of Information site Dostup do Pravdy processed its 10,000th FOI request. That’s pretty impressive, given that they launched just a couple of years ago, in 2014. We offer hearty congratulations to the Dostup […]
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6 April 2016
Togo Approves FOI Law; 108th Internationally
The Togo National Assembly on March 10 approved a freedom of information law, according to media reports. Minister of Communication Guy Madjé Lorenzo was quoted as saying that the new law seeks to strengthen the role of media in the fight against corruption and fraud. See an Ecofin article and another on Togosite (both in […]
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30 March 2016
Digital Bangladesh – Right to information and climate finance
By Saleemul Huq The author is Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Independent University, Bangladesh. This article originally appeared in Business on March 30. As Bangladesh and the world enters post-2015 era with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Sendai Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) – […]
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30 March 2016
Indonesian Court Orders Release of Licensing Data
Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ordered the Kutai Kartanegara district government to disclose “a vast trove of licensing data,” according to a MongaBay report on the case “The case had originated in the country’s Public Information Commission (KIP), which is increasingly being used by civil society to obtain data related to the extractive, agribusiness and forestry sectors,” according […]
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30 March 2016
Scottish Commissioner Sends Letter on Timing of Releases
Scotland’s information commissioner has issued a clarification of policy on delaying the release of decisions during the pre-election period. A candidate for the Holyrood elections was told by the commissioner’s office would not issue certain decisions which may “put forward a critical view of ministers” until after the Scottish Parliament election on May 5, as […]
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30 March 2016
Sri Lankan Provincial Council Urges Strengthening FOI Bill
The Northern Provincial Council has recommended specific ways to beef up the Sri Lankan government’s proposed right to information bill. The draft bill was tabled March 23. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) The Northern Provincial Council wants RTI to cover held by private authorities if such information is necessary in the public interest, according to a description of […]
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30 March 2016
FOI Notes: EU, US, India, Open Data, Nepal, Africa, Australia, UN, More
European Union: The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) makes access to information requests asking 17 EU member state permanent representations for a list of meetings held with lobbyists in the previous 12 months. Only four governments (Ireland, Romania, the Netherlands and Poland) provided all or some information. My Society: The UK group […]