Search Results
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6 May 2011
FOI Notes: Research Motherload, and More
Research: More than five dozen papers have just been posted that will be presented at the 1st Global Conference on Transparency Research, to be held May 19-20 at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. Titles include: Bertoni, Eduardo: Freedom of Information. Three harmless words? The role of the media and access to information laws Fumega, Silvana […]
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4 March 2011
Six More Countries Considered EITI Compliant
Six more countries were designated as being in compliance with the standards of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the global standard for transparency in the oil, gas and mining sectors. Added to the list during a conference in Paris were: The Central African Republic, The Kyrgyz Republic, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, and Yemen, for a […]
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1 March 2011
One Jonathan Adviser Undercuts Another on FOI Bill
The Special Adviser to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Media, Imma Niboro, has distanced the president from remarks by another presidential advisor that were sharply critical of the pending freedom of information bill. Nibora told reporters March 1 that Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Mohammed Abba-Aji, was speaking only for himself when he strongly […]
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25 February 2011
The Case for Freedom of Information in Ghana
By Yakubu Abdulai The writer is a student of Tsinghua University in Beijing. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree in International Development. Hardly a day passes without any media house carrying stories relating to corruption in Ghana. Some of them are high level corruption cases whilst others are simple petty corruption. Corruptions usually starts […]
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15 October 2010
World Bank Releases Few Summaries of Meetings
By Toby McIntosh The “summaries” of World Bank Executive Board meetings now being disclosed under the Bank’s new Access to Information policy are substantially shorter and less comprehensive than the summaries prepared before the Bank agreed to release them, according to a Freedominfo.org review. In addition, the Bank has not disclosed summaries for all the Board meetings […]
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23 September 2010
Campaigns for FOI Laws Under Way World-Wide
Active efforts to pass new or amended freedom of information laws are ongoing in more than a dozen countries, according to a FreedomInfo.org tally. The number suggests the continuation of the trend toward more national FOI laws, but the landscape is not entirely friendly for pro-transparency activists. In South Africa, the government has proposed to […]
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2 December 2009
World Bank Cautious on Media Development
The goal of strengthening the media as one way to fight corruption was adopted by the World Bank in 2006, but the promise has gone virtually unfulfilled, according to research by freedominfo.org.
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16 May 2008
Canadian Government Reports on IFI Activity Get Good Grade
The Canadian government’s annual reporting on its activities at international financial institutions is getting better, according to the authors, and to a Canadian civil society group which recently gave the latest report its best grade ever. The Halifax Initiative said the report on 2007 activities merited a B+, up from last year’s rating of B-, […]
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22 March 2006
EBRD Seeks Comment on Draft of New Disclosure Policy
At the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the board recently released a proposal to modify its disclosure policies, with comments due April 14. The EBRD included in its announcement a number of new provisions. First, two new categories of information would be disclosed: General Institutional Information and Accountability and Governance. Second, the EBRD […]
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22 March 2006
Freedom of Information Laws Added to the Development Agenda
By Toby McIntosh Riding a wave of transparency, the idea of encouraging Freedom of Information (FOI) laws as part of the development agenda is gaining currency, but slowly. With research and case studies increasingly identifying transparency as a key tool in fighting corruption and facilitating development, more attention is being paid to the development of […]
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6 August 2004
World Bank Backs More Transparency for Oil Revenues
While deciding to continue investing in oil, gas and mining ventures, against the advice of an internal report, the World Bank Board of Directors Aug. 3 said it would insist on greater transparency about the revenues from such projects (http://www.worldbank.org/ogmc/). The Bank "will begin requiring disclosure of revenue figures for new major extractive industries projects […]
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11 October 2003
“The Right to Know is Gaining around the World”
by Thomas Blanton The International Herald Tribune, October 11, 2003, p. 6 Last month (September 23, 2003), Armenia became the 51st country in the world to guarantee its citizens the right to know what their government is up to. Armenia’s new freedom of information law is the latest outpost of the worldwide movement towards opening […]
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11 October 2002
Open Democracy Advice Centre Exposes Government for Failing to Implement 2-Year-Old Transparency Law
At its Second Annual Open Democracy Review in Cape Town, ODAC reported that the majority of public servants have not heard of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2000, which came into operation in March of 2001. “We found that 54% of the public bodies we contacted were unaware of the Act, 16% were […]
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17 July 2002
REPORT: A Landmark Law Opens Up Post-Apartheid South Africa
By Mukelani Dimba, Training Consultant, Open Democracy Advice Centre UPDATE – Media Release, 11 OCTOBER 2002 The Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC) today released the results of a study that exposes the government for failing to implement a crucial Transparency Law passed over two years ago. A Landmark Law Opens Up Post-Apartheid South Africa Throughout […]
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1 June 2002
World Bank Begins Pilot Programs on Disclosure
Some 20 countries are about to embark on pilot programs with the World Bank in which they will disclose and disseminate more information than they have in the past – that is, more than what Bank policy currently requires. The exact dimensions of this effort will become clearer once the Bank makes an official announcement […]