What’s New
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25 April 2014
Inter-American Rapporteur Addresses FOI in Report
Freedom of information is one of many topics addressed a 619-page report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that includes the 2013 Annual Report of the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. (Spanish) The report by rapporteur Catalina Botero Marino also addresses national security surveillance and violence against journalists, combining a descriptive […]
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25 April 2014
FOI Notes: Job, US, Colombia, Budget Transparency, Open Data
Employment: The Open Society Foundations Justice Initiative Freedom of Information and Expression team is inviting applications for a new Program Officer position, to be based in New York. “We seek someone, preferably an FOI activist, who is fluent in Spanish and English and has worked in Latin America. Experience with FOI or transparency work would be […]
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24 April 2014
Australia Reconsidering OGP Membership, Paper Reports
The Australian government under Tony Abbott is “reconsidering” the previous administration’s pledge to join the Open Government Partnership, according to Sean Parnell, reporting in The Australian. An announcement at the early May regional meeting of the OGP in Bali had been widely expected, but Parnell wrote: But Attorney-General George Brandis has instead passed responsibility for […]
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24 April 2014
Carter Center Issues Tool to Assess FOI Implementation
The Carter Center April 23 unveiled a tool for assessing the implementation of access to information laws. The goal is to evaluate the “plumbing” that makes access laws work. The assessment tool uses 65 questions and the results are displayed with red, yellow and green ovals. The tool is not designed to rank countries or […]
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24 April 2014
France Plans to Join OGP; Will Become 64th Member
France will be joining the Open Government Partnership, officials have announced. Minister Marylise Lebranchu April 23 made the pledge at the Paris Conference on Open Data and Open Government. France would be the 64th member, The first hint of France’s plans came last week, buried in a joint communique with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto while […]
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18 April 2014
Canadian Commissioner Finds Evidence of Tampering
Canada’s information commissioner Suzanne Legault has found “a pattern of improper involvement” by three Conservative officials that “comprised” rights under the Access to Information Act. The evidence of “systemic interference” with access to information requests warranted police investigation, she said, but the Public Works Minister chose not to pursue the matters, which date back to […]
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18 April 2014
Amendments Approved to Ukrainian Access Law
Amendments to the law in the Ukraine makes a variety of improvements related to access to information, according to a summary by the Media Law Institute on April 18. The Parliament of Ukraine on March 27 passed the draft law No 0947 and the president signed it April 17. “In terms of enhancing right to […]
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18 April 2014
FOI Notes: Making All Voices Counts Grants, OGP Awards, T/A
Making All Voices Count: The 28 winners are announced in a contest for cutting-edge projects to boost government and citizen engagement. Winners include a group planning to develop an app for searching pubic data worldwide, a project to engage with graffiti artists to spread data-based information in Nairobi’s slums, a project to construct a pharmaceutical […]
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18 April 2014
Rwandan Agencies Failing to Appoint Information Officers
Barely a quarter of Rwandan public institutions have followed a mandate in the Access to Information Law to appoint information officers. An official in the Office of Ombudsman said only 28 percent of the designations have been made, according to a New Times report by Eugene Kwibuka. According to the article, a year after the […]
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18 April 2014
Virginia Judge Exempts Academic Work from FOIA
The Virginia state Supreme Court ruled April 17 that emails and unpublished research by a university professor are proprietary records dealing with scholarly research and therefore exempt from disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Skeptics of global warming, State Del. Robert Marshall (R-Prince William) and the American Tradition Institute, had sought records from […]
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15 April 2014
Study Finds Implementation of Bangladesh RTI Law Slow
The implementation of Bangladesh’s 2009 right to information law is “still very slow,” according to a comprehensive “Country Diagnostic Analysis” that contains recommendations for improvement. The study, conducted by the Management and Resources Development Initiative (MRDI), examined many facets. The findings include: – public awareness of the law (low) – the role of the media […]
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14 April 2014
Access Info Appeals Spanish Ruling in Human Rights Court
Access Info Europe April 14 appealed to the European Court of Human Rights following an unsuccessful seven-year legal battle to obtain information from Spain’s Ministry of Justice. Spain’s Constitutional Court in 2013 rejected an Access Info appeal based on the freedom of expression provisions of the Constitution (Article 20.1.a) and Article 10 of the European […]
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14 April 2014
Irish Groups Protest Plan to Impose Various FOI Fees
Plans to increase fees for freedom of information requests in Ireland have drawn objections from civic groups. Arguments against the proposed increased, part of a larger FOI amendment package, were voiced in a letter signed by about 30 groups that are part of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) civil society forum. It was sent to […]
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11 April 2014
US Senate Passes Bill on Spending Transparency
The US Senate has passed bill intended to make government spending more transparent. The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 994), passed April 10 by unimous consent, would require the treasury secretary and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to establish government-wide financial data standards as a first step toward more robust […]
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11 April 2014
Aquino Official Discloses Goal of Marrying FOI, Open Data
The government of Philippine President Benigno Aquino is interested in amending the pending freedom of information bill to address the subject of open data. Little detail is available on the concept, which was exposed publicly April 8 by Edwin Lacierda, the government’s chief spokesman during a World Bank forum. “What we have decided is instead […]
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11 April 2014
Tonga Making Plans to Pass Right to Information Bill
The government of the South Pacific nation of Tonga on April 10 said it plans to “move forward to develop a Freedom of Information Law.” The announcement from the Ministry of Information & Communications says that in 2010 the government approved a FOI policy for Tonga. “In support of the Policy, systems and structures, such […]
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11 April 2014
Vanuatu Institutes RTI; Pledges to Pass Legislation
The government of the Republic of Vanuatu on April 8 officially launched a right to information policy and again indicated plans to pass an RTI law. The RTI policy was approved in 2013 and commits the government to release all information to the public, subject to certain exceptions protective of a number of interests such […]
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11 April 2014
FOI Notes: Morocco, Environment, Accountability, Open Data, More
Morocco: A new guide on ATI in Morocco by UNESCO in Arabic and French by Saad Filali Meknassi. Tunisian cartoonist Z drew the cartoons. Transparency and Accountability: The Centre for Law and Democracy and the Democracy Reporting International have published a Briefing Paper on International Standards on Transparency and Accountability. A 2011 DRI report outlined […]
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8 April 2014
OGP Grapples With Getting Members to Pay Dues
By Toby McIntosh The Open Government Partnership Steering Committee is poised to increase the pressure for financial contributions from its members, 86 percent of whom don’t contribute. With rising budget needs, the two-and-one-half-year-old organization also is broadening its search for financial backing, which so far has come mostly from major foundations and the large countries […]
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4 April 2014
Argentine Court Rules for Access Over Privacy
The Supreme Court of Justice in Argentina has ordered the Ministry of Social Development to release information about persons who receive social welfare payments. The case was won by CIPPEC (Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento – the Centre for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth), an Argentine nongovernmental […]