Latest Features
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25 April 2012
Effective RTI Law Needed in Pakistan; Model Law Drafted
By Muhammad Aftab Alam Alam is the executive director of the newly established Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development (IRADA), a new not-for-profit Pakistani independent policy, advocacy, research and training organization. This article first appeared in The News and is reprinted with permission of the author. “The Indian Right to Information Act, 2005 and its […]
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8 March 2012
Forcing Open the Government in Australia
By David Jean This article first appeared in The Advertiser, Adelaide, Australia, on March 6, by staff writer David Jean, and is reprinted with permission. For Mark Parnell, it was a bittersweet victory. After a 20-month Freedom of Information battle that included several court appearances, the Greens MLC finally won the right to access documents relating to […]
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2 March 2012
RIght2Know Campaign in South Africa Issues Report
This report was prepared by the National Working Group for presentation at the 2012 Right2Know National Summit March 3-4, 2012 in Johannesburg. 1. INTRODUCTION It is a mere 18 months since the launch of the Right2Know Campaign at the end of August 2010 in Cape Town. It a remarkable short period of time our campaign has […]
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17 February 2012
OGP and Brazil: Question About Consultation and Participation
By Greg Michener This article first appeared in Michener’s blog: http://observingbrazil.com/ As co-chair of the Open Government Partnership, in a very few months Brazil will play host to a meeting among more than 50 countries participating in an unprecedented global initiative: a ‘multinational and multi-stakeholder’ effort to improve accountability, transparency, access to information, and greater participation in […]
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16 February 2012
RTI Implementation: Comparing Experiences in Southeast Asia
By Chiranjibi Kafle The writer is Head, Department of English, RR Campus, Kathmandu. This article was originally published in Republica and is reprinted with permission. More than 90 countries in the world today have introduced Right to Information (RTI) legislations to safeguard people´s access to public information. But the implementation part has not been smooth. […]
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3 February 2012
Bahamas Set to Debate Freedom of Information Bill
By Larry Smith Smith is an independent columnist whose work appears in The Tribune. Reprinted by permission. Last October the government tabled an historic Freedom of Information Bill in Parliament – fulfilling a key election pledge. This law is expected to be debated in the next few days. Some have called the proposed legislation weak, arguing that […]
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3 February 2012
FOI Training for Government Officials: Main Trends
By Natalia Torres Torres is Senior Researcher for the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE) in Argentina. See this article in Spanish. CELE has just released a brief note on access to information training for government officials. The note, elaborated by Natalia Torres and Luis Esquivel, describes different approaches […]
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3 February 2012
Acceso a la información: principales tendencias en la capacitación de funcionarios
Por Natalia Torres Investigadora Principal del CELE El CELE acaba de publicar una breve documento sobre capacitación de funcionarios en acceso a la información pública. El documento, elaborado por Natalia Torres y Luis Esquivel, describe las diferentes estrategias utilizadas por los gobiernos para asegurar que sus funcionarios se encuentren preparados para la implementación de las […]
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30 January 2012
Campaign Under Way for Germany to Join Open Government Partnership
By Sebastian Haselbeck Haselbeck is community manager of the Internet & Society Co:llaboratory. When eight countries committed to launching the Open Government Partnership in the fall of 2011, chaired by the governments of the United States and Brazil, hopes were high among the German “opengov” community that their own government’s commitment might be imminent. For […]
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30 January 2012
Under Obama, FOIA Is Still in Shackles
By Trevor Timm Timm is an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who specializes in free speech issues and government transparency. He also curates the Twitter account @WLLegal that reports on legal news surrounding WikiLeaks, the right to publish classified information, and other freedom of the press issues. This article was first published Jan. 30, […]
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27 January 2012
Ruling Underscores Need for RTI Bill in Pakistan
By Ikramul Hag and Huzaima Bukhari The writers are lawyers and visiting professors at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. This article first appeared Jan 17 in The News, and is reprinted by permission of the authors. “Every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in all matters of public importance subject […]
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13 January 2012
Argentina: Opening Up the Governance of the Judiciary
By Natalia Torres Torres is Senior Researcher at the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE) in Argentina. See this article Spanish. At the end of December 1999 the National Congress approved the National Law of Ethics in the Practice of Public Functions. This established, among other things, a process […]
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13 January 2012
Argentina: abriendo el gobierno de la justicia
Por Natalia Torres Investigadora Principal del CELE, Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión y Acceso a la Información (See this article in English.) A fines de diciembre de 1999 el Congreso de la Nación aprobó la Ley Nacional de Ética en el Ejercicio de la Función Pública que establecía, entre otras cosas, un régimen para […]
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20 December 2011
What’s Ailing RTI? Resource Issues Plague Indian Law
By Shonali Ghosal Ghosal is a correspondent with Tehelka magazine, based in New Delhi, which published this article in its Dec. 24 edition. Following is an interview with Shailesh Gandhi, a Central Information Commissioner. (Reprinted with permission.) The mere suggestion of any amendment to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, sends civil society into […]
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16 November 2011
Japan: Greater Openness or Greater Secrecy?
By Lawrence Repeta Repeta is a professor of law, Meiji University, Japan, and a member of the board of directors of Information Clearinghouse Japan (the leading Japanese NGO advocating and monitoring Japan’s information access laws) The Japan Times recently carried an editorial that neatly summarized some basic information policy issues facing the country’s Democratic Party of Japan […]
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14 November 2011
Implementation of Bangladesh RTI Law Needs Improvement
By Robaet Ferdous and Jagaran Chakma Ferdous is an Associate Professor, Dhaka University and Chakma is a Staff Reporter of The Independent where this article first appeared on Oct. 29, 2011. Reprinted with permission. The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2009, was adopted in the first session of the Ninth Parliament on March 29, 2009. […]
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31 October 2011
Designing Exemptions That Balance Both Effective and Accountable Governance
By Muhammad Zamir Zami is Chief Information Commissioner, Information Commission, Bangladesh. He gave this talk Oct. 4 at the Ottawa, Canada, meeting of the International Conference of Information Commissioners. His original title is: “Limiting the limitations: Designing exemptions that balance both effective and accountable governance” I hope I am permitted to say that our meeting […]
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21 October 2011
Proactive Transparency for Public Services: the Berlin Model
By Alexander Dix Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information This is a translation of an article originally published in the German Yearbook on Freedom of Information and Information Law. Resources: The Berlin FOI Act as amended 2010 and The Act for the Full Disclosure of Secret Contracts for the Partial Privatization of the Berlin Water Utilities (as […]
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11 October 2011
The Outsourcing of Federal FOIA Services
By Clara Hogan Reprinted by permission of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, a U.S. nonprofit organization which published this article Sept. 7. Your federal Freedom of Information Act request may not actually be processed by a government employee. With pressure for increased transparency from the Obama administration, many federal agencies, including […]
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3 October 2011
Getting Ukrainians to Use Their Right to Information
By Dmytro Derkach Derkach is a communications officer with the World Bank Office in Ukraine. This article appeared first on the Bank website CommGap. The Ukrainian Law on Access to Public Information came into force on May 9, 2011. Before this new law was adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament, international bodies had described the effective […]