Search Results
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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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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 […]
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3 February 2016
Court Backs Ombudsman, Limits Pakistan’s President
A court in Pakistan has ruled that the president may not overrule the federal ombudsman in right to information cases, Umar Cheema reports in The News and Sohail Sarfraz writes in the Business Recorder. The Lahore High Court set aside a presidential decision in favor of the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR). “The verdict had […]
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17 January 2016
Pakistani Minister Says New Group to Review RTI Bill
The government of Pakistan has constituted a special five-person committee to evaluate the long-pending right to information bill, according to an article in Daily Pakistan. The News reported that the group wlll “finalize draft law in a meeting on January 21 and it will then be laid before the house as a government bill.” The […]
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14 January 2016
FOI Notes: Research, Open Data, India, Denmark, Liberia, US, UK, Uruguay, Chile, Jersey, Pakistan, OGP, Georgia, Japan, UNDP
Research/United States: Margaret B. Kwoka of the University of Denver Law School publishes research critical of the commercial use of FOIA, drawing on original datasets from six federal agencies. The abstract says: It uses these agencies as case studies to examine the way that businesses derive profit-making value from free or low-cost federal records. Remarkably, […]
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7 January 2016
Study Rates Pakistani RTI Laws, Performance
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ranked as the Pakistani province with the best overall right to information act and response performance, with a score of 73% in a study conducted by PILDAT, the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency. Punjab was second with a score of 65% and Balochistan third with a score of 29%. The 2002 […]
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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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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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1 December 2015
FOI Notes: Google, EU, OGP, OD, US, UK, Pakistan, India
Right to Be Forgotten: Google has removed over half a million links from its search engine results in order to comply with a 2014 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that allows users the “right to be forgotten.” Out of 1.2 million URLs that the search giant has evaluated for removal […]
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24 September 2015
FOI Notes: Pakistan, Canada, India, US, Immigration, UK
Pakistan: Pildat, an independent, non-partisan and not-for-profit indigenous research and training institution with the mission to strengthen democracy and democratic institutions in Pakistan has published a report “Activating Right to Information in South Asia,” by Nikhil Dey, co-convener of the National Campaign on People’s Right to Information, India. Among other messages, Dey writes: “The RTI […]
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17 September 2015
FOI Notes: India, Pakistan, US, EU, South Africa, Trade, Research, More
India: Human Rights Watch calls on the government to “promptly and thoroughly investigate threats and attacks on so-called right-to-information activists.” Pakistan: Nudrrat Khawaia reports in The Daily Pakistan: “Despite well-publicized promises, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has yet to undo the widely criticized amendments to the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Right to Information Act 2013.” Mexico: Ximena […]
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10 September 2015
FOI Notes: Open Budgets, Pakistan, India, Nepal, UK, US, Nigeria, Scotland, Open Data, World Bank
Open Budgets: The Open Budget Partnership announces the release of its 2015 survey, stating: Most countries surveyed provide insufficient information for civil society and the public to understand or monitor budgets, and only a small fraction of countries have appropriate mechanisms for the public to participation in budget processes. Formal oversight institutions also frequently face […]
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27 August 2015
Pakistan Breaches Promise to Bring RTI Bill to Cabinet
Pakistan’s government has not lived up to official promises that a right to information reform bill would be considered at the next Cabinet meeting, reports Umar Cheema in The News. The Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid told The News Aug. 22 that the draft bill would be presented in the “next’” cabinet […]
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27 August 2015
FOI Notes: Open Data, Pakistan, Philippines, India, Malaysia, US, Isle of Man, Open Contracting, UK, Caribbean, Mexico
Open Data: The Open Knowledge Foundation announces on what datasets will be including in the 2015 Global Open Data Index (GODI). The additions follow consultations and discussions on the Index forum. An invitation has been issued to make submissions to the index by Sept. 20. Pakistan: The Punjab Information Commission summons a top official of […]
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20 August 2015
FOI Notes: Theory, Science, Open Data, Commentary, India, Pakistan, UK, US, FOI Tips
Research: Academicians Paul ‘t Hart, Ben Worthy and Albert Meijer have developed an interpretive framework for assessing government transparency that has been accepted for publication in Administration and Society. See online version. The abstract: How can we evaluate government transparency arrangements? While the complexity and contextuality of the values at stake defy straightforward measurement, this […]
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30 July 2015
FOI Notes: Ireland, UK, India, Pakistan, US, Hungary
Ireland: The information commissioner writes about what happened when fees were raised. “While I expected to find a decline in usage of the Act I did not believe that it would be as immediate or as dramatic in scale as proved to be the case: between the first quarter of 2003 and the first quarter […]
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23 July 2015
Pakistan Draft Law Rated Potential Number One
Pakistan’s draft Right to Information Act has scored an “astonishing 146 points” on the RTI Rating. The score puts the bill 11 points ahead of the best-ranked RTI law in the world, Serbia’s, which got 135 points. The assessment of the Pakistan bill was issued by the Centre for Law and Democracy. The CLD assessment […]
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9 July 2015
FOI Notes: US, UK, Germany, Kenya, Open Data, India, Pakistan, Canada
Germany: The Federal Administrative Supreme court of Germany forces the German Parliament to give public access to records on “UFOs,” according to post on the UFO Chronicle blog. United States: The Justice Department releases new guidelines for agencies seeking to close out old requests that the requesters might not be interested in anymore. Building on 2010 […]
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8 July 2015
Pakistan PM Promises to Bring RTI Bill to Cabinet
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has asked that the draft of Right to Information Bill be placed on the agenda of the next meeting of the Federal Cabinet for its approval, according to an article on JournalismPakistan.com and another in PakistanToday. Sharif on July 3 asked the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to introduce RTI bill […]
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25 June 2015
Pakistan Province Exempts Assembly From RTI Act
The legislature in the Pakistan’s province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has exempted itself from the purview of K-P RTI Act of 2013, according to media reports. The K-P Assembly also reduced the size of the Information Commission to two from three. Another amendment provides a right to appeal commission decisions to district court. As described by journalist […]