Latest Features
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19 February 2015
Mexico: OGP Leader Faking Transparency
By Ana Cristina Ruelas The author is the Right to Information Program Officer at ARTICLE 19, México and Central America Mexico became the lead chairman of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) on 2014, although we are far from openness. The government’s rhetoric is all about transparency and co-creation but in their offices they are pushing us […]
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18 February 2015
South Africa: Not So Transparent After All
By Candice Bailey The author is a journalist with Corruption Watch. This article first appeared Feb. 16 in The Star. Reprinted with permission. Johannesburg – When the Gauteng High Court granted civil society campaigners Right2Know access to a list of the country’s national key points, the award was lauded as a victory in the battle for […]
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17 February 2015
RTI and Ghana’s Commitment to the OGP
By Ugonna Ukaigwe The author leads the RTI Coalition in Ghana. The article, reprinted with permission, first appeared Feb. 16 on the website of Peace FM. In September 2011, Ghana joined some 46 other countries around the world to sign unto the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an initiative that seeks to secure concrete commitments from governments […]
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11 February 2015
Implementing RTI More Comprehensively
By Muhammad Zamir The writer is a former Chief Information Commissioner and Ambassador. He is an analyst specializing in foreign affairs, right to information and good governance.?This commentary was published in the Financial Express. Enacted by the Government of Bangladesh in the first session of the 9th Parliament, the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2009 […]
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9 February 2015
Sudanese Journalists Wary of New FOI Law
By Lori Baitarian The author is an intern in the Committee for the Protection of Journalists’ Middle East and North Africa Program and holds a BA in political studies from the American University of Beirut. The article first appeared in the CPJ blog and is reprinted with permission. The Sudanese government has boasted that its […]
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5 February 2015
Analysis of and Prospects for New House and Senate FOIA Bills
By Nate Jones This article first appeared in Unredacted, a blog of the National Security Archive, where Jones is the FOIA Coordinator. The Archive also publishes FreedomInfo.org. On Feb. 5, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the Senate bill discussed in this report. The demise of FOIA reform bills in the last Congress is analyzed in […]
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5 February 2015
Debate intelligently: more openness, less secrecy
By Eduardo Bertoni The author is Director of the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE) at the University of Palermo. Also in Spanish. This week started in the Honorable Senate of Argentina the debate on the reform of the Law 25,520 , known as the “Law of National Intelligence” […]
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7 January 2015
RTI Case Studies From Pakistan
A report by the Asia Foundation on right to know laws in three Southeast Asian countries. (See FreedomInfo.org report.) The report includes an annex with case studies about the use of the laws. Reprinted below is the section on Pakistan Prime Minister’s Overseas Trips Under the Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002, RTI activist Saleem Iqbal […]
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7 January 2015
Case Studies in Use of the RTI law in Nepal
A report by the Asia Foundation on right to know laws in three Southeast Asian countries. (See FreedomInfo.org report.) The report includes an annex with case studies about the use of the laws. Reprinted below is the section on Nepal. Information in the Public Interest The International Criminal Court (ICC) adjudicates cases of genocide, crimes […]
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7 January 2015
Using the RTI Law in Bangladesh
A report by the Asia Foundation on right to know laws in three Southeast Asian countries. (See FreedomInfo.org report.) The report includes an annex with case studies about the use of the laws. Reprinted below is the section on Bangladesh. Applying RTI in the Shrimp Sector Social Activities for the Environment (SAFE), a Bangladesh NGO, […]
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1 January 2015
2014: A Year of Attempts to Strangle the RTI
By Vinita Deshmukh The author is a prize-winning journalist, a consulting editor of Moneylife, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. The article was published Dec. 31 in Moneylife. Strapline: Political parties defying summons by CIC, a headless information commission and much more meant a low year for this otherwise strong […]
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1 January 2015
10 Years of FOI in the UK: Tony, Tension and Turbulence
By Ben Worthy The author is a Lecturer in Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. It was first posted Dec. 28 on his blog OpenDataStudy. The 10th anniversary was widely noted elsewhere, including in an official note by Justice Minister Simon Hughes saying that more than 400,000 requests have been made under FOI laws in […]
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24 December 2014
New Document Throws More Light on Mexico’s San Fernando Killings
By Jesse Franzblau The author filed an information request as part of the Migration Declassified project with the National Security Archive, resulting in the IFAI judgment described here. Federal prosecutors in Mexico have made the first official disclosure of investigative files concerning state complicity in the country’s 2010–11 migrant massacres in San Fernando. In August […]
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24 December 2014
Mexican Transparency Law: A Chance to Strengthen Accountability
By Emi MacLean & Adriana García This article appeared Dec. 15 in an Open Society Foundations blog in English and Spanish. The authors work for the Open Society Justice Initiative. It is a measure of the contradictions of Mexico’s political system that the wave of public outrage over the disappearance and presumed murder of […]
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18 December 2014
Zambia Promises but no Action: 12 years waiting and still counting
By Edem Djokotoe The author is a Ghanaian journalist and media consultant. This is a chapter from a recently issued State of Right to Information in Africa Report 2014 and is reprinted with permission. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) Zambia’s Access to Information Bill is currently in limbo, three years after the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) government promised to enact […]
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11 December 2014
From Open Data to a Right to Data
The following article is reprinted from the Worldwide Web Foundation website where it appeared Dec. 9. For more information, contact Savita Bailur, savita.bailur@webfoundation.org FreedomInfo.org is interested in your reactions to this article. Please send comments to freeinfo@gwu.edu. “Data are the lifeblood of decision-making and the raw material for accountability,” says a new UN report. We couldn’t […]
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11 December 2014
Zimbabwe: Time for Constructive Engagement
By Jacqueline Chikakano The author is Legal officer, MISA–Zimbabwe. This is a chapter from a recently issued State of Right to Information in Africa Report 2014 and is reprinted with permission. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) Zimbabwe is currently led by an elected government that came into power after the July 31, 2013 elections following the unity government that had […]
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11 December 2014
Access to Information as a tool for the sustainable development of roads in Uganda
By Sam Mutabazi The author is Executive Director of Uganda Road Sector Support Initiative (URSSI). This is a chapter from a recently issued State of Right to Information in Africa Report 2014 and is reprinted with permission. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) Information exchange is vital in setting the development agenda of a country. Governments that are liberal in sharing […]
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2 December 2014
Starting and Sustaining a Youth Movement for FOI
By Jeff Crisostomo The author is the Founding Convener of the FOI Youth Initiative (FYI) in the Philippines. The FOI Youth Initiative (FYI) is a national network of more than two hundred Filipino youth and student organizations that call for transparency, accountability, and participation in government through the immediate passage of the People’s Freedom of Information Act. […]
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26 November 2014
Tanzania in Yet Another Lost Century
By Deus Kibamba The author is Executive Director, Tanzania Citizens’ Information Bureau. This is a chapter from a recently issued State of Right to Information in Africa Report 2014 and is reprinted with permission. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) Despite a strong history of pan– Africanism and being one of the first countries to embrace open competitive elections, the […]