Posts Tagged ‘commissioners/ombudsmen’
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16 July 2013
Deadline Passes, Indian Parties Resist Compliance
July 15 was the deadline for six Indian political parties to appoint information officers and begin complying with the right to information, but they have not, according to Indian newspapers. The Central Information Commissioner on June 3 gave the parties six-weeks to act, but since then most of the parties have supported the idea of legislation to […]
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10 July 2013
Indian Gov’t Still Planning to Overturn CIC Order
Instead of filing a court appeal, the Indian government is continuing to consider at a legislative way to overturn a June 3 Central Information Commission ruling making political parties subject to the right to information law, Indian papers continue to report. “Highly-placed sources in the Law Ministry today said that the CIC order would not be challenged by […]
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3 July 2013
FOI Notes: EU, TA/I, UNESCO, IMF
European Union: Emily O’Reilly, the Ombudsman of Ireland, has been elected as the next European Ombudsman, beginning Oct. 1. Employment: The Transparency and Accountability Initiative, a donor collaborative, is seeking a Program Officer to lead its Impact and Learning workstream. IMF: The International Monetary Fund has released a revised draft of its Fiscal Transparency […]
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28 June 2013
Liberian Group Gets Few Responses to Requests
The Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP) on June 26 unveiled research showing a low government response rate to information requests. CEMESP Executive Director Malcolm Joseph that more than 90 FOI requests resulted in only 10 answers. Joseph said the custodians of information are “violating the law with impunity.” He urged all stakeholders to […]
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28 June 2013
Information Commissioners to Hold Conference in Berlin
The 8th International Conference of Information Commissioners (ICIC 2013) will be held Sept. 18-20 in Berlin. The registration deadline is July 31. Details on registration and the agenda are available at http://www.info-commissioners.org/ Correspondence may be addressed to icic2013@bfdi.bund.de. The commissioners will convene a meeting among themselves on Sept. 20. The preliminary agenda shows these panels: […]
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21 June 2013
Ontario Commissioner Says Emails Improperly Deleted
The information commissioner of the Canadian province of Ontario has found that a top government official improperly deleted emails. Commissioner Ann Cavoukian said in a report that the chief of staff to the former minister of energy violated the Archives and Recordkeeping Act (ARA) and the records retention schedule developed for ministers’ offices by the […]
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14 June 2013
Cayman Islands Freedom of Information Review Was Private
By Brent Fuller The following article published June 13 is reprinted with permission from the Cayman Compass. A related report in FreedomInfo.org describes legislative action on proposed FOI amendments. A Caymanian Compass news story from December 2010 that caused considerable uproar among lawmakers and which led to calls for the newspaper to face criminal prosecution was apparently […]
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3 June 2013
Indian CIC Says Political Parties Covered by RTI Law
India’s Central Information Commission June 3 ruled that political parties are covered by the Right to Information law. The Commission in a 54-page decision said the six national parties receive substantial indirect funding from the central government and perform public functions, thus making them public authorities under the law. Unless overturned by a court, the […]
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23 May 2013
What Happened With Transparency Legislation Reform in Mexico?
By Guillermo Ávila Ávila is a researcher at Fundar, Center of Analysis and Research. As perhaps you already know, one of the main proposals of the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, during the presidential campaign was a very deep and comprehensive reform to foster the transparency policy in Mexico. He actually presented a bill, through […]
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17 May 2013
Appeals Rise in Ireland, Irish Commissioner O’Reilly Says
Appeals to the Irish information commissioner are up, some government departments are refusing to provide information to her, and budget pressures are being used to justify delays in responding to requests, according to Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly. The information appeared in her annual report for 2012 and in an article in The Irish Times by Steven […]
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16 May 2013
UK Commissioner Addresses Handling Vexatious Requests
The British information commissioner’s office May 15 issued extensive guidance on dealing with “vexatious” requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The guidance “is clearly going to lead to many more requests being refused as vexatious,” according to an eight-page letter sent by the Campaign for Freedom of Information to the government to detail its objections […]
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10 May 2013
First Commissioner Named by President in Yemen
Yemen President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadion May 6 appointed Samir Amin Noman as the country’s first information commissioner The appointment came about a year after passage of the new FOI law. Noman is an information systems specialist and previously worked for the Social Fund for Development, according to an article in the Yemen Times. “We […]
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10 May 2013
Budget Cutbacks Affecting Cayman Island Commissioner
The Cayman Islands information commissioner has reported that “severe” budgets cuts are preventing checks on whether public officials are complying with the freedom of information law, according to an article by Brent Fuller in The Compass. The cuts have been “seriously felt” this year by the five- person information commissioner’s office which now lacks a […]
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3 May 2013
Thwarted Liberian Group Seeks Asset Disclosures
A Liberian group has gone to court in an effort to compel the release of the asset declarations of public officials after being frustrated by the anti-corruption commission and the information commissioner. The Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP) on April 29 filed a writ of Mandamus with the Supreme Court to compel […]
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19 April 2013
Right to information? You are in queue!
By Shailesh Gandhi Gandhi is a former commissioner at the central information commission. This article is reprinted with permission from GovernanceNow, where it was first run on April 17. “GovernanceNow is a multi-media initiative for participatory reportage and analyses related to governance of all institutions and processes that are vital to public life in India.” […]
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17 April 2013
Indian Court Stays Major Parts of Controversial Ruling
The Indian Supreme Court on April 16 stayed a controversial decision ordering that retired or sitting judges be appointed to lead the Central Information Commission and state commissions. The order by Justices A. K. Patnaik and Arjan K. Sikri also stayed a directive from the Sept. 13, 2012, decision that would have required commissions to […]
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12 April 2013
Commissioners Report Low Budgets, Growing Workloads
Information commissioners around the world face serious budgetary constraints and expect higher workloads, according the first survey of commissioners. “In terms of their capacity to deal with current and projected workloads, 77% of Commissioners believe that their financial and staff resources, are ‘insufficient ‘(58%) or ‘not at all sufficient’ (19%),” according to the report on the survey. […]
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11 April 2013
Group Asks Macedonian Leaders to Reject Report
“Serious shortfalls’ exist in the latest annual report about access to public information in Macedonia, according to Foundation Open Society, which has called on government leaders to reject the report. The report by the Commission for Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information, covering 2012, contains misinformation, the group charged in an […]
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5 April 2013
Scottish Commissioner Warns on Use of Vexatious Standard
Scottish Information Commissioner Rosemary Agnew on April 1 cautioned authorities against denying information requests on the grounds they are vexatious. Laying out revised standards based on recent cases, she said the vexatious provision must not be used “lightly,” according to the announcement. The main changes are: “Significant burden on the public authority” becomes one factor rather […]
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5 April 2013
Panama to Grant Autonomy to New Transparency Body
The Government of Panama has announced that will propose creation of an autonomous access to information and transparency authority, according to media accounts, including a lainformacion.com report. The bill that will be sent to the National Assembly would create an independent National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information that would take over from the current Executive […]