What’s New
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7 January 2016
FOI Notes: US, UN, UK, Germany, Canada, Spain, Philippines, India, OGP, EU, Rwanda, Open Data
United States: State Department Inspector General Steve Linick issues a report highly critical of the department’s handling of FOI requests. He says the department did not follow rules requiring searching email accounts when relevant records are likely maintained in these accounts. World Press Freedom Day: A registration page is now available or the May 2-4 […]
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7 January 2016
Indonesian Officials Urge Greater Transparency
“The Central Information Commission (KIP) and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo have called on all public institutions, local administration and state-owned companies to provide more access to their public information in order to build trust,” according to an article in The Jakarta Post. “If an openness to information becomes intrinsic to our attitude and culture, this […]
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31 December 2015
Danish Officials Utilizing Controversial New Exemption
The Danish government is actively using an exception created in 2013 to prevent the release of some documents that are part of the deliberative process, according to an article (in Danish) published in Information, written by Ulrik Dahlin and Sebastian Gjerding. The controversial Section 24 has been invoked 360 times by 17 ministries from the […]
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30 December 2015
Macri Government Begins Work on Argentinian FOI Bill
The new government of President Mauricio Macri has opened consultations on a draft freedom of information law, meeting with representatives of nongovernmental organizations, according to a report in La Nacion. National parliamentarians, representatives of non-governmental organizations and officials from various areas of the executive branch recently met for a disucssion on developing a consensus bill […]
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30 December 2015
FOI Notes: Mexico, US, UK, India, Open Data, EU, Virgin Islands, Nepal, OGP
WPFD 2016: The website for the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day 2016 now includes a Concept Note about the themes the 2016 event: freedom of information and sustainable development. The Concept Note includes “Points to Ponder” such as: “How to mainstream SDG Goal 16, Target 10 – public access and fundamental freedoms – within development policies and budgetary planning?” The […]
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22 December 2015
FOI Notes: India, Funding, PPPs, Australia, US, UK, OGP, UNIDO, Open Contracting, Big Data
India: An analysis of the recent ruling of the Supreme Court concerning the Reserve Bank of India says the decision mandating disclosures “is likely to have implications on other regulators overseeing capital markets and insurance as well. The LiveMint story was written by Shreeja Sen and Remya Nair. Also see column on the ruling by Madabhushi Sridhar […]
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22 December 2015
Former Defense Official Picked to Lead Indian Information Commission
Former Indian Defense Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur is the government’s choice to be the next Chief Information Commissioner. Mathur’s selection is a departure from the convention of appointing the most senior Information Commissioner (IC) as the chief commissioner, noted news reports such as one in The Indian Express. It is the first time anyone besides […]
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18 December 2015
Ghanian Group Seeks Access to Documents Power Deal
A Ghanaian group is relying on the constitutional guarantee of right to information in its pursuit of documents about a controversial energy deal. The lawsuit by the CitizenGhana Movement against Power Minister Kwabena Donkor and others follows revelations made by a Norwegian newspaper. In the absence of a national freedom of information law, two leading […]
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17 December 2015
Indian Court Orders Disclosure by Reserve Bank
The Indian Supreme Court has ruled that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) must disclose inspection reports on banks, regulatory actions and lists of loan defaulters, among other things, even if it embarrasses individual banks. The court says RBI cannot deny information on defaulters and irregularities on grounds of “economic interest, commercial confidence, and fiduciary […]
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17 December 2015
INAI Challenges State Law in Court as Unconstitutional
Mexico’s Information Commission has gone to court to challenge as unconstitutional the freedom of information law in the State of Queretaro. The National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) voted to bring a case before the Supreme Court of Justice challenging the law issued in early November, The state […]
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17 December 2015
OGP Picks Sanjay Pradhan, Bank Official, as Director
The Open Government Partnership has announced that Sanjay Pradhan, a long-time World Bank official with an expertise in governance issues, has been selected to head the organization starting in late March. As executive director of the 69-naton OGP, Pradhan will lead the OGP Support Unit and report to the Steering Committee of 11 government and […]
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17 December 2015
Slovenian Parliament Defeats Plan to Raise Request Costs
The Slovenian Parliament has rejected a proposed amendment that would have allowed public officials to charge for their time in answering freedom of information requests. The vote was a victory in a longstanding effort to resist government efforts to insinuate labor charges into the cost structure. The amendment was opposed by the Slovenian information commissioner and […]
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17 December 2015
FOI Notes: Pakistan, COP21, Open Data, Aarhus, India, New York, Tanzania, UK, Isle of Man, Jersey
Pakistan: Dawn reporter Salman Yousafzai examines in detail the slow delivery of documents and other problems facing journalists and other requesters trying to use the Right to Information Act Act, passed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in October 2013. COP21: The lack of transparency at the climate change talks is examined in a CounterPunch article by […]
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16 December 2015
Bulgarian Assembly Amends Access to Information Act
The Bulgarian National Assembly Nov. 26 adopted amendments to the Access to Public Information Act (APIA) to enhance proactive disclosure, encourage electronic requests, and facilitate re-use of information. The amendments introduce an extended list of 17 categories of information subject to proactive online publication replacing the current four (Art. 15), according to Alexander Kashumov, Head […]
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16 December 2015
RTI Activists Request Appointment of CIC Chief
Indian right to information activists have written Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi urging him to fill the now vacant post of the Chief of the Central Information Commission. The latest Chief Information Commissioner, Vijai Sharma, retired on Dec. 2 after a six month tenure. “This is the second time this year that the post of […]
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15 December 2015
Colombia Study Scores Implementation of Law
A new study in Colombia has rated government compliance with the new access to information law. Performance measured 39.7 points on a scale of 100, according to the index (in Spanish) created by Project Antonio Nariño. The 2015 Access to Information and Freedom of Expression Index assesses four main dimensions, one which is access to […]
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15 December 2015
Sri Lankan Cabinet OKs Draft Right to Information Bill
The Sri Lankan Cabinet on Dec. 2 approved a draft right to information bill that is expected to be introduced in Parliament in January. The draft text was the subject of a critical preliminary analysis by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), which listed 32 reservations about the bill. The Centre for Law and Democracy also […]
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15 December 2015
FOI Notes: Open Data, Open Contracting, UK, EU, Spain, Cambodia, Myanmar, New Zealand, OGP, Australia, Survey, India, Pakistan, Japan, US
Open Data: The third annual Global Open Data Index shows “impressive gains from non-OECD countries with Taiwan topping the Index and Colombia and Uruguay breaking into the top ten at four and seven respectively.” Overall, the Index evaluated 122 places and 1,586 datasets and determined that only 9%, or 156 datasets, were both technically and […]
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15 December 2015
Draft Law in Palestine Readied for Cabinet
A new draft access to information law for Palestine is now ready for submission to the Cabinet of Ministers for consideration, according to a UNESCO summary of a meeting in Ramallah Dec. 1-2 where the bill was reviewed. The seminar was organized by UNESCO in cooperation with the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Ministry of Information […]
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8 December 2015
UN Official Suggests Areas for Expanding Transparency
A United Nations official has suggested a variety of ways to extend the right information in the digital age, especially regarding corporate information. Guy Berger, Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development at UNESCO, spoke Dec. 4 at an event in Finland to begin celebrations of the 250th year of the Swedish freedom of […]