Posts Tagged ‘implementation’
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9 September 2011
U.S. Group Rates Obama Administration on Secrecy
The U.S. advocacy coalition OpenTheGovernment.org Sept. 7 issued its 2011 Secrecy Report finding some positive trends within the U.S. government. According to Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, “We are not as yet at the level of ‘unprecedented transparency’ the Obama Administration promises, but we are beginning to see signs that at least some of the Administration’s […]
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29 August 2011
Statewatch Says EU Report Makes Pitiful Reading
The European Commission’s annual report on access to documents makes “very pitiful reading,” according to the public interest group Statewatch. The Report from the Commission on the application in 2010 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (pdf). The Commission’s annual report on public access to its […]
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29 August 2011
Implementation of Nepal RTI Law Called Unsatisfactory
By Tanka Raj Aryal Aryal is Executive Director, Citizens’ Campaign for RTI Despite the legal and institutional setup‚ the implementation status of RTI is not satisfactory. Many public agencies have not appointed information officers; and where they have been‚ they are without the necessary training‚ capacity and resources. Capacity and orientation of the information officer […]
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25 August 2011
FOI Notes: Africa, UNESCO, United States, United Kingdom
West Africa: The Africa Freedom of Information Centre has issued a study on access to information in Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria. Follow this link, and got to bottom of listings. UNESCO: The online report on the 2010 UNESCO World Press Freedom Day meeting, on the theme of: “Freedom of Information: The Right to Know” is available. […]
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9 August 2011
Bangladesh: RTIA and People’s Right to Know
By A.J.M. Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan Dr. A.J.M. Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan is an Associate Professor of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Dhaka. He is a news media and Internet researcher. This article first appeared in The Star and is reprinted with permission of the author. Can or will the Right to Information Act […]
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29 July 2011
Indian Activists Object to Exclusion on PPP Projects
Indian right to information activists are expressing dissatisfaction with an internal government legal opinion that would exempt Public Private Partnership Projects (PPPs) from the right to information law. The Central Information Commission has decided to seek Prime Minister’s Manmohan Singh’s intervention,according to The Hindustani Times, which broke the story. “We will be writing to the […]
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15 July 2011
Bulgarian AIP Offers Proposals in Annual Report
The Access to Information Programme (AIP) in Bulgaria has identified persistent problems facing those seeking government information and made a series of recommendations. The eleventh annual report containing the information — Access to Information in Bulgaria 2010 — is now available in English online. AIP identifies several persisting problems: Lack of unified practices in terms […]
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1 July 2011
Participants in Indonesian Training to Submit Requests
Some 40 participants in a recent training session in Indonesia have agreed to each submit 10 requests under the Indonesian FOI law. The participants come from different civil society groups and will have support from the Centre for Law and Democracy, based in Halifax, Canada, and the Indonesian Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI). The commitment […]
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1 July 2011
Uganda Access Regulations Problematical, WRI Says
The new regulations to implement the Uganda Access to Information Act of 2005 contain “burdensome provisions that make access unnecessarily costly and difficult,” according to a new analysis. The assessment comes from the World Resources Institute in a report entitled “Access to Information Regulations: Another Bump in the Road to Transparency,” by Gaia Larsen, Carole […]
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24 June 2011
Report Analyzes Access in 7 Latin American Countries
An extensive new report examines access to information policies and practices in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. The report is titled “?Venciendo la Cultura del Secreto. Obstáculos a la implementación de políticas y normas de acceso a la información en la región?” (“Overcoming the culture of secrecy. Obstacles […]
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17 June 2011
Indian Cabinet Exempts Bureau of Investigation
The Indian Cabinet June 9 decided to exempt the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the Right to Information Act, according to news reports, but official confirmation has not been forthcoming. The exemption was requested by the CBI, arguing that its inclusion under the RTI made it difficult to share information and obtain information,” according […]
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17 June 2011
Uganda Issues Regulation to Implement Access Statute
Uganda has issued long-awaited regulations to govern the 2005 Access to Information Act. The regulations had been approved in May, but publication was delayed. (See previous Freedominfo.org report.) The absence of regulations constrained implementation of the law and their issuance was a key demand of groups including the Africa Freedom of Information Centre. The AFIC is a pan-African […]
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19 May 2011
Uganda Approves Rules to Operationalize FOI Law
After years of delay, the Ugandan government has decided to issue rules to operationalize the 2005 Access to Information Act. The regulations have not yet been made public, but the promise that they will be “gazetted” has been made by a key minister. A $500 dispute with the printing company is delaying publication. The Africa Freedom […]
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18 May 2011
Group Seek Uniformity in Indian State RTI Rules
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative has asked the Indian Department of Personnel and Training, Government to address a lack of uniformity with regard to right to information rules by state governments and the High Courts. One problem, according to the letter is that “Parliament can annul or modify Rules made by the Central Government but […]
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16 May 2011
Study in Chile Faults Administration of FOI Law
A study of the two-year old Transparency Act in Chile by Pro Access and Participate has identified problems with using the internet to make requests for information. They studied 169 organizations and found that only 47% of the time could applications be made ??via the internet. Moreover, 71% of the requestors faced problems with the […]
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13 May 2011
New Website in Peru Covers Court Decisions on Access
A new website in Peru — Justicia y Transparencia (Justice and Transparency)(http://www.justiciaytransparencia.pe) — gathers and organizes all the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Peru on access to public and private information. Suma Ciudadana said its intention is to ensure that national jurisprudence becomes a useful tool to help to disseminate the right of access […]
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13 May 2011
Advisory Group Formed in Uruguay on Access Law
A Consultative Council of the Law on Access to Public Information has just been created in Uruguay. This advisory and consultative body brings together representatives from the academia, the government and the civil society. The council was mandated by the FOI law. “It institutionalizes participation and it has an important advocacy strategy to impact on […]
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6 May 2011
Using RTI Rivals Bribery in Fighting Bureaucracy
Right to information requests rival bribery as a way to cut through bureaucratic red tape in India, according to two studies by U.S. academics. The experiments involved the complicated processes of registering to vote and getting ration cards, and were conducted by Yale University political scientists, Leonid Peisakhin and Paul Pinto. Bribery is a better […]
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6 May 2011
Irish Commissioner Suggests Expansion of FOI Law
Irish Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly May 3 issued her Annual Report for 2010, recommending that the scope of the law be expanded to cover more public bodies, including the administrative side of An Garda Síochána [the Irish government police force] and the biggest state-controlled financial institutions. She also objected to recent cutbacks on the coverage […]
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2 May 2011
Icons Signal Expanded Australian Disclosures
Beginning May 1, Australian government agencies must publish a “disclosure log” listing information that has been released in response to freedom of information access requests. The logs, signaled by a uniform icon, must be updated within 10 working days of giving the FOI applicant access to the information. This disclosure is one piece of a larger […]