Posts Tagged ‘commissioners/ombudsmen’
-
14 August 2014
Indian CIC Backs Disclosure of Whistleblower Complaints
India’s Central Information Commission (CIC) has supported the release of information about whistleblowers’ allegations, The decision came in a case in which Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative asked the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) for details of complaints against government servants received under the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers (PIDPI) Resolution, also […]
-
7 August 2014
Australian Commissioner Exempts Incoming Government Briefs
By Peter Timmins The following article appeared Aug. 4 in Open and Shut, Timmins’ blog about FOI in Australia. The decisions by Australian Information Commissioner Professor McMillan in Parnell & Dreyfus, and Crowe on the exempt status of incoming government briefs (IGB) under the Freedom of Information Act will please those in government who argue […]
-
31 July 2014
Indian State Commissioner Imposes Fines on 4 Officials
A state information commissioner in Andhra Pradesh is pushing for officials to comply with the Right to Information Act and imposing fines. Commissioner P Vijaya Babu at a press conference July 28 said he has asked the chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh to require that officials respond to the applications, according to a report in […]
-
19 July 2014
Indian CIC Decides to Give Priority to Senior Citizens
The Indian Central Information Commission has decided to give priority to senior citizens for the resolution of pending right to information cases. The decision made in June was recently reported by Economic Times, without many details. The CIC website does not elaborate. Cases of senior citizens — defined as those being 65 on the date […]
-
18 July 2014
New RTI Law in Maldives Goes Into Effect
The Maldives government is taking steps to implement the new right to information law that went into effect July 12, according to an article in The Sun. The president’s spokesperson Ibrahim Muaz said information officers have been appointed at all government officers and that the president has nominated an Information Commissioner for parliament’s approval.? President […]
-
2 July 2014
FOI Notes: Pakistan, United States, India, Australia
Pakistan: A research report, “The State of Proactive Disclosure of Information in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab Public Bodies” says that public bodies in both provinces “are not complying with the respective right to information laws of their provinces.” United States: The FOIA Advisory Committee holds its first meeting, as summarized in a blog post by […]
-
27 June 2014
Kashmir Commissioner Urges Assembly to Follow RTI Law
Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Information Commissioner G R Sufi has complained that the Legislative Assembly is not following the Right to Information Act, according to a report by a newspaper. The Assembnly has not created a website to make required proactive disclosures, according to a June 8 article in Greater Kashmir by Dr Raja Muzzafar […]
-
6 June 2014
UK ICO Calls Future FOI Funding Critical
By Mathew Burgess Burgess is a UK digital journalist, freelancer and is writing a book on the Freedom of Information Act for journalists. This post appeared June 6 on his blog, FOIA Directory. He can be found tweeting @mattburgess1. The future of funding for Freedom of Information in the UK has reached a ‘critical’ level, […]
-
19 May 2014
Puente Elected to Head Expanded IFAI in Mexico
Ximena de la Puente Mora has been unanimously elected by the other six commissioners as the president of the Federal Institute for Access to Information and Data Protection (IFAI). She was elected for a three year term at the first meeting of the expanded commission, whose members were recently selected by the Senate. The wholesale […]
-
16 May 2014
Australian Government Seeks to Close Information Office
The four-year-old Office of Australian Information Commissioner would be abolished Jan. 1, 2015, under a plan put forward by the Abbott government. The changes would save $10.2 million over four years, according to the proposal, described in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Open and Shut blog. Information commissioner John McMillan, privacy commissioner […]
-
1 May 2014
Mexican Senate Picks Seven New Commissioners
The Mexican Senate April 30 selected the seven new commissioners for the Federal Institute for Access to Information and Data Protection (IFAI). All seven candidates got more than 100 votes, above the two-thirds needed (74). There were objections that politics had trumped expertise in the decision-making (See CNN report). One of those selected, Eugenio Monterrey […]
-
25 April 2014
25 Candidates Selected for 7 Slots on Mexico’s IFAI
Twenty-five persons have been advanced for seven seats on Mexico’s Federal Institute for Access to Information and Data Protection (IFAI). An expert committee chose them from 147 candidates after a series of hearings and announced the nonbinding list (below) April 21. Final selection requires the votes of two-thirds of the Senate and approval by President […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
7 April 2014
Mexico selection of new IFAI important for migrant rights
By Jesse Franzblau This report was posted April 4 on Migration Declassified. It is the second in a series on Mexico’s FOI reforms and information relating to migrant rights. See first report in English, Spanish. Mexico’s Senate is now in the process of selecting the country’s new information commissioners who will be at the center of […]
-
4 April 2014
EU Parliament Votes to Release Clinical Trial Data
The European Parliament voted April 2 to make public information about clinical trials for drugs. The new law is expected to go into effect in 2016 and will affect only new clinic trials. (See Reuters .) “The vote, which confirms an informal deal reached in December between Parliament and the European Union’s 28 member states, […]
-
21 March 2014
Hong Kong Ombudsman Calls for FOI Legislation
Hong Kong Ombudsman Alan Lai Nin has called on the authorities to introduce freedom of information legislation, but others said action in not likely. His report after a year of study includes 12 recommendations. A summary states: We find that under the purely administrative ATI regime in Hong Kong, key components of the FOI laws […]
-
10 March 2014
FOI Notes: India, US, Nepal, OGP, Research, UK, Fellowship
India: The Ministry of Personnel and Training has issued a Volume 1 of a “Compendium of Best Practices on RTI.” including The chapter titles are: SARATHI (System of Assisting Residents And Tourists through Helpline Information), RTI Library, Transparency Desk, RTI Online, Central Monitoring Mechanism, Pro-Active Disclosure, Jaankari, MCA21, Information Kiosks, Chakravyuh, Digitization and RTI Foundation […]