What’s New
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19 February 2016
Two OGP Members Slip Below Minimum Qualification Level
Two of the 69 member countries of the Open Government Partnership – Papua New Guinea and Tunisia — have fallen below the minimum standard for membership. The two countries have a year to improve their eligibility scores under OGP rules. This is the first time member countries have slipped below the qualification bar. Countries must […]
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18 February 2016
Delays in Sri Lanka Worry Supporters of RTI Bill
An apparent delay in the introduction of right to information legislation in Sri Lanka is troubling for RTI supporters. The RTI Bill was supposed to have been tabled in Parliament in January 2015. (See previous Freedominfo.org report.) The Sri Lankan Cabinet on Dec. 2 approved a draft RTI bill that was expected to be introduced in […]
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18 February 2016
FOI Notes: Nigeria, Research, Open Data, Open Contracting, Much More, Even FOI Valentines
Nigeria: In order to sensitize youths on their rights to access information from public institutions, the Lagos State chapter of the National Youth Service Corps inaugurates a new Community Development Service group — the Freedom of Information Act Club. United Kingdom: FOIA requests are more effective than informal inquiries, according to a new paper: “Transparency […]
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17 February 2016
South Korea Not Pursuing OGP Goals, Review Finds
South Korea has fallen well short of its stated goal of releasing 10 million government documents annually, according to an analysis conducted for the Open Government Partnership. “There is little evidence that South Korea has actively participated in OGP,” begins the review by Geoffrey Cain, an independent researcher in South Korea. His detailed assessment was […]
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17 February 2016
Civil Society Groups Score Obama on Open Government
The Obama administration has made only “limited” progress toward achieving its stated goals to improve access to information, according to a detailed assessment issued Feb. 16 by the OpenTheGovernment.org. The report developed by 23 civil society organizations analyzes the administration’s efforts toward fulfilling 16 commitments. They were made in the second US national action plan created […]
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15 February 2016
Draft Italian Access Decree Still Disappoints Supporters
An Italian right to information decree has now been released officially and appears to live up to low expectations. FOIA4Italy issued a statement lamenting weaknesses in the decree approved by the Council of Ministers, calling it very disappointing. It was not much changed from a leaked version. There are not many chances of changing it, […]
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15 February 2016
Hungarian Lawmaker Seeks to Exempt Postal Service
A Hungarian parliamentarian from the ruling party has submitted a bill that would exempt the Hungarian Postal Service (Magyar Posta) from the provisions of the freedom of information act. Fidesz MP Szilárd Németh offered the legislation, according to a report in The Budapest Beacon. The English-language paper quotes Miklós Ligeti, Director of Legal Affairs for Transparency International Hungary, pointing […]
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11 February 2016
Spanish Government Sues Over Disclosure Rulings
The Spanish government is appealing five instances in which the Transparency Council ordered the disclosure of information under the one-year-old transparency law. The lawsuits are described in an article by Elana G. Sevillano in El Pais and a press release by Access Info Europe. Ironically, the government is seeking to prevent the disclosure of documents […]
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11 February 2016
EU Open Data Efforts Only Halfway There, Study says
More political will is necessary in Europe to advance access to open government data, according to a new report prepared for the European Data Portal project. The existing national data portals in EU countries are falling well short of their potential, according to detailed research by Capgemini Consulting in the report entitled “Open Data Maturity […]
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11 February 2016
Slovakian Groups Press Reforms to Access Law
Proposals to strengthen the right to information law in Slovakia have been endorsed by 11 of the 12 political parties, but not the ruling Smer party, the SITA newswire has reported and described (in Slovak) by one of the sponsors. Ten reform proposals were made by three non-governmental organizations, the Transparency International Slovensko (TIS), the Fair-Play Alliance […]
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11 February 2016
FOI Notes: Transparency in Rulemaking, Freedom of Expression, Open Data, Pakistan, EU, US, UK, India, Ghana, Bosnia, FIFA, Canada, Israel, Open Fisheries
Rulemaking: “In one-fourth of the economies measured, governments do not give notice of proposed regulations, publish draft texts nor engage with the general public before implementing new rules,” according to the World Bank, which has issued a dataset on rulemaking that covers 185 countries and reflects inputs from the private sector and governments. Country findings, […]
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11 February 2016
Malaysian FOI Supporters Oppose Stronger Secrets Act
An opposition Malaysian lawmaker has called on the government to enact a freedom of information law instead of imposing harsher penalties under the Official Secrets Act. The comments came from Mohamed Hanipa Maidin, a member of the National Trust Party, according to an article in The Malaysian Insider. The chairman of the party’s legal bureau […]
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10 February 2016
UN Leader Cites Islamic Teaching on Transparency
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Feb. 8 cited Islamic teachings in advocating for government transparency and inclusiveness. In a speech at the World Government Summit in Dubai he said: “The challenges facing governments are not only on the emergency front. People around the world are calling as never before for greater transparency, accountability and democracy.” Ban also […]
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10 February 2016
Malawi Draft Law Rated Highly by Rating System
If the president allows it to pass, the draft right to information law in Malawi would be the fifteenth best in the world, according to an analysis by the Centre for Law and Democracy. “The Analysis also reveals that there are important areas where the Bill should be improved before it is passed,” a CLD […]
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10 February 2016
Draft Austrian FOI Law Criticized by Two Groups
Austria’s draft freedom of information law does not meet international standards, according to an analysis of the draft by Access Info Europe and the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI). The groups said the “key weaknesses” in the proposed FOI law (Informationsfreiheitsgesetz) include: – An overly restrictive definition of “information” that would exclude drafts, internal e-mails, notes and other information […]
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10 February 2016
OGP Leaders Set Priorities, Plan Future Activities
The Open Government Partnership’s leaders have prioritized the development of an “implementation platform” for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and more participation of subnational governments in the OGP, according to the detailed minutes of the OGP Governance and Leadership subcommittee meeting held Jan. 20-21 in South Africa. These and other priorities are described in the […]
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8 February 2016
Call for UN ATI Indicator Receives Endorsement
A new voice has emerged in support of having an access to information “indicator” to measure implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although the goals include access to information (ATI), SDG 16.10, no parallel indicator has been included so far by the UN body drafting the list of measurement tools. The process of […]
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4 February 2016
Philippines FOI Bill Dies; House, Aquino Blamed
Its demise was predicted many months ago, but the last rites for the freedom of information bill in this session of the Philippines Congress have now been administered. Once again, President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman is denying culpability in the nonpassage of what had been called a priority bill, reported in PhilStar.com. The House adjourned Feb. […]
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4 February 2016
Entrepreneur Aims to Map US Government Information
Armed with a $35,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, New York entrepreneur Max Galka hopes to map the information available in US. federal agencies. Galka plans to populate his FOIA Mapper website with a catalogue of government information systems, indexed by subject and with descriptions of each system. For example, a user might enter “noise” […]
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4 February 2016
FOI Notes: OGP, Pakistan, India, EU, Italy, US, UK, Canada, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Transparency Research, Open Data, More
Open Government Partnership: The OGP Access to Information Working Group has published the OGP ATI Commitment Directory containing all ATI pledges made in the national action plans. This is the second edition. Comments are being accepted and a third version is in the works. OGP: Joe Foti, program manager of the OGP independent review mechanism writes about the large […]