Latest Features
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28 July 2016
Romanian Report on ATI Progress
The following is the text of a report by the Ministry for Public Consultation and Civil Dialogue in Romania. Created in November 2015 as a leading central body responsible for improving the usage, the legal framework and the practices in the areas of access to information, public consultation and civil participation, Ministry for Public Consultation […]
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14 July 2016
Questions About the World Bank’s Governance Agenda
By Alan Hudson The author is Executive Director of Global Integrity. This article first appeared on the Global Integrity blog and is reprinted with permission. There has been concern for many months in the governance and development community, in Washington DC and beyond, about the commitment of the World Bank to the governance agenda, and particularly […]
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14 July 2016
Brexit and Open Government
By Ben Worthy The author is lecturer in Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. This post first appeared in the Open Data Study Blog and is reprinted with permission. Brexit, as we now know, means Brexit. But what does it mean for open government in the UK? On the surface, nothing changes. Almost all […]
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29 June 2016
World Bank Publishes ATI Implementation Report
The text below is the concluding chapter is a report, “Public Access to Information for Development — A Guide to the Effective Implementation of Right to Information Laws.” Published by the World Bank, the report was written by Victoria L. Lemieux and Stephanie E. Trapnell. Lemieux until recently was a senior public sector specialist at […]
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16 June 2016
Tunisia breaks down government’s secrecy walls
By Kouloud Dawahi The author is Common Law, Internet Policy Analyst with IGMENA, “a Hivos programme that brings voices together from the MENA region on Internet Governance and policies.” This article was posted on the IGMENA website June 8 and is reprinted with permission. Public sector information The Internet has played a major role in […]
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16 June 2016
Bangladesh RTI Act: A powerful tool against poverty
By Shamsul Bari and Ruhi Naz The writers are Chairman, Research Initiatives, Bangladesh (RIB) and Project Coordinator (RTI section) of RIB respectively. Their email is: rib@citech-bd.com. This article first appeared in The Daily Star on June 15and is reprinted with permission, Rezia Khatun, a 36-year-old woman, became destitute after her husband suddenly died. With three […]
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9 June 2016
The FOIA’s Best of Times, The FOIA’s Worst of Times
By Lauren Harper The author writes a weekly round-us of US FOIA news. Click here to sign up for the weekly FRINFORMSUM email newsletter. Harper works for the National Security Archive, also the parent of FreedomInfo.org. Tom Blanton, the National Security Archive’s Executive Director, recently told a packed house at Columbia School of Journalism’s FOIA @ 50 conference […]
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6 June 2016
The Geospatial Information Bill in India Criticized
By Debaditvo Sinha The author is Senior Research Fellow with the Public Health and Environmental Justice Initiative at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. This article appeared June 3 on Scroll.in and is reprinted with permission. Original headline: “The Geospatial Information Bill will deal a body blow to environmental democracy in India.” The draft Geospatial Information Regulation […]
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6 June 2016
Why Torontoist is Launching an FOI Column
By Jessica Smith Cross The author is a staff member of the Torontoist. This June 2 article is reprinted with permission from the Torontoist. As Torontonians, we have a right to know how the Scarborough Subway ridership projections were made. We own the statistics on police carding and can demand to see them to learn what they reveal about […]
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26 May 2016
Nigerian FOI Law Not Effectively Implemented
Below is the concluding chapter from the April 2016 report by the Carter Center on its examination of selected agencies in Uganda using the Center’s Access to Information Legislation Implementation Assessment Tool, which is described in the report. Nigeria adopted a Freedom of Information law on May 28, 2011 when former President Goodluck Jonathan signed […]
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23 May 2016
Progress, Weaknesses Seen in Ugandan FOI Law Implementation
Below is the concluding chapter from the April 2016 report by the Carter Center on its examination of selected agencies in Uganda using the Center’s Access to Information Legislation Implementation Assessment Tool, which is described in the report. Overall the findings of the Implementation Assessment Tool reveal that as compared to the initial seven ministries […]
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18 May 2016
India: Evidence Rebuts Attacks on RTI
By Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri The writers are members of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information. Their article first appeared May 16 in The Indian Express with the subtitle, “MPs must not run down a law that promises a more informed citizenry.” The Right to Information (RTI) Act has undoubtedly been a […]
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18 May 2016
Bangladesh: A Good Law Gone to Waste?
By Dr. Shamsui Bari The writer is Chairman of Research Initiatives, Bangladesh (RIB). This article, subtitled “Right to Information Act 2009: The role of media,” first appeared in The Daily Star. Media’s power to shape public opinion is succinctly captured in a story from Peru, dating back to the 1990s. Alberto Fujimori was the president of […]
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18 May 2016
Transparency Needed for Sri Lanka’s Constitutional Council
By Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena The author is a Colombo based civil liberties advocate and a regular contributor to The Sunday Times where this column appeared May 15. In a notably pungent observation at the close of her mission visit to Sri Lanka this month, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers […]
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11 May 2016
Building and Empowering a Global Practitioners Community
By Nikhil Dey and Aruna Roy The authors lead Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), India. The following article, reprinted with permission, is among 18 articles commissioned by the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, a consortium of funders. The entire collection is here. Progress From its initial local struggles to the building of a national campaign—which ultimately fueled a broad-based people’s push for […]
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11 May 2016
Analytic Overview of Essays on Transparency and Accountability
By Thomas Carothers The author is Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C. The following article, reprinted with permission, sums up 18 articles commissioned by the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, a consortium of funders. References in this article are to the contributions by other authors. The entire collection is here. Second-Generation Guideposts Although the contributors […]
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11 May 2016
RTI and Citizens: Emerging Trends in Pakistan
By Zahid Abdullah The author is Program Manager for the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives. This article appeared May 8 in The News. One of the core principles of Right to Information (RTI) legislation is that the process of filing information requests should be easy and cost-effective. The logic behind this principle is to facilitate […]
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28 April 2016
China’s FOIA Turns Eight
By Jamie P. Horsley The author is a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, affiliated with the Kissinger Institute for China and the U.S., on leave from the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author. May 1 marks the eighth […]
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28 April 2016
New Vietnam Access Law Criticized
The following report was published by the group Viet Tan (English version, French). “The mission of Viet Tan is to overcome dictatorship, build the foundation for a sustainable democracy, and demand justice and human rights for the Vietnamese people through a nonviolent struggle based on civic participation.” The Access to Information Law, passed on April […]
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28 April 2016
Nigerian Commentary: Freedom of Dis-Information!
By Eugene Enahoro The author describes himself on Twitter as an “HR & Capacity Development professional who writes Tuesday Column in Daily Trust Newspaper and concerns himself only with important matters.” This opinion article was first published in The Daily Trust. As the nation prepares to celebrate 17 years of uninterrupted civilian rule it’s quite […]