Posts Tagged ‘implementation’
-
3 February 2014
EC Finds Fault With Spain’s New Information Access Law
The European Commission Feb. 3 praised Spain for passing a law on access to public information, but said it needs improvement. In particular, independent oversight should be added, the report said, and its implementation hastened. The comments came in a wide-ranging report on Spain’s anti-corruption efforts. The law adopted in December “represents a significant step […]
-
31 January 2014
Disclosure of Request Letters Handled in Different Ways
Request letters – the core instrument used to ask for government information – are themselves disclosable in many jurisdictions, but the names of the requesters are commonly kept confidential, according to a FreedomInfo.org sampling of practices in a dozen countries. Some countries make available public logs with short summaries of all requests. Such “FOI Logs” […]
-
20 December 2013
Compliance With South African Law Found Weak
Compliance with the South African access to information law has “decreased from the already worryingly low levels of compliance,” according to a new report. The 2013 “shadow report” was issued by the PAIA CSN, the civil society network that monitors the Promotion of Access to Information Act. “Only 16% of information requested was released in full […]
-
6 December 2013
Canadian Commissioner Says Controls Needed for IM
Controls should be placed on instant messaging “to preserve government records and respect the federal access to information law,” according to a report by Suzanne Legault, Information Commissioner of Canada, issued Nov. 28. The recommendations already have been rejected by the government. “After investigating the use of wireless devices and instant messaging in 11 federal […]
-
26 November 2013
RTI: The Promise and the Problems
By Yek Raj Pathak The author is senior editor at National News Agency. This article was first published in Republica. Right to Information Sangam Biswakarma of Hetauda got just 42 marks in mathematics in his SLC exams. He was not satisfied. He was confident that he should get at least 90 in this paper. His […]
-
21 November 2013
Belief in Access Rights Found Low in Macedonian Survey
A “significant share” of citizens does not believe they enjoy the right to request information from public and state institutions, according to a survey conducted by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia. The study, titled “Overcoming the principles of secrecy in the public administration’s operation,” says perceptions vary by subject matter. “Most often, citizens believe […]
-
12 November 2013
Challenges Faced in Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua
By Alejandro Martínez This article was published Nov. 11 on the Knight Center Journalism in the Americans blog. After decades of a culture of virtually impenetrable secrecy within the Mexican government, in 2002 Mexico passed the Federal Access to Information and Personal Data Protection Act. Since then, it has become an often-cited model of how other […]
-
11 November 2013
Sierra Leone: FOI is One Thing, Freedom of Press Another
By Amanda Vragovich Vragovich is the Assistant Program Officer for West Africa at the National Endowment for Democracy. This article appeared Nov. 7 in ThinkAfricaPress. On 31 October, after ten years of civil society activism, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone signed into law the Right to Access Information Bill. The long-awaited freedom of […]
-
11 November 2013
What the US National Action Plan is Missing
By Lauren Harper This article was published Nov. 8 in Unredacted, the blog of the National Security Archive The Open Government Partnership (OGP), an international coalition working to make governments more transparent and accountable, just wrapped up its latest summit in London. For the summit, each government was asked to “announce an ambitious new open […]
-
8 November 2013
An FOIA request, answered ten years later
By Alasdair Roberts Roberts is Jerome L. Rappaport Professor of Law and Public Policy at Suffolk University Law School, Boston. This article ran on Nov. 5 in Roberts’ blog. Back around the turn of the millennium, I was doing a lot of writing on freedom of information laws and other topics relating to governmental openness. […]
-
24 October 2013
The Nigerian National Assembly Needs to Follow FOI Law
By Yemi Ademolekun Adamolekun is the National Coordinator of Enough is Enough Nigeria. This article was first published Oct. 24 in Punch. The National Assembly was allocated N150bn ($1 bn) in the 2013 budget. Yes, it’s ONLY three per cent of the total budget of N4.987tn. However, the 469 men and women in the National […]
-
23 October 2013
U.S. to Make FOI Reform Major Part of OGP Plan
By Toby McIntosh The U.S. government intends to create a national portal for making freedom of information requests and move toward a single, national FOIA regulation, according to persons briefed this week and government officials. These and other FOIA-related changes would be made part of the second U.S. national action plan as a member of the […]
-
11 October 2013
Alliance Protests Defiance by El Salvador Legislature
The Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información (Regional Alliance for Freedom of Expression and Information) has protested the decision of the Board of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador to ignore an order from the Institute for Access to Public Information (IAIP) to release information about the legislators’ legal advisors. The legislature said […]
-
7 October 2013
Some Ukrainian Bodies Deny Asset Disclosures
By Oleksii Khmara and Anatolii Stoian Khmara is head of Transparency International Ukraine, an anti-corruption watchdog. Stoian is a representative of the same organization. Just in time for the eleventh annual International Right to Know Day on September 28th, Ukrainian parliament members have again attempted to significantly limit the public’s access to information. Four representatives of the […]
-
3 October 2013
Only Commissioner in Africa Busy With Delayed Start
By Toby McIntosh Liberia’s new information commissioner received his first appeal while working on his car in his garage. Mark Bedo-Wla Freeman had been appointed several months earlier, but in the beginning he lacked a computer, an office or any staff. Things are looking up now, after a little more than a year in office. Freeman has an […]
-
18 September 2013
Breadth of Access Laws Discussed at ICIC Meeting
The potential for access laws to cover corporations, and the rationale for such scope, was discussed Sept. 18 at the conference of information commissioners in Berlin. Speakers debated increasing access about corporate information, among other topic. Maeve McDonagh, of University College Cork, said, “The boundaries between the private and public sectors have been increasingly blurred […]
-
18 September 2013
FOI Laws Under Pressure Speakers at ICIC Say
Freedom of information laws are under increasing stress, according to speakers Sept. 18 at the Eighth International Conference of Information Commissioners. The right of access to information “is under greater threat today” than at any time before, said Laura Neuman, from the Carter Center’s Access to Information Initiative. Particularly under discussion in the sessions and […]
-
11 September 2013
CIMA Report Makes Suggestions for Improving FOI Implementation
Many freedom of information are “exemplary on paper” but “poorly implemented,” according to a new report that offers a variety of recommendations aimed at “breathing life” into FOI laws. Authors Craig L. LaMay, Robert J. Freeman and Richard N. Winfield aim to provide a list of “practical” suggestions in the 55-page report was sponsored by […]
-
27 August 2013
New Regulation in Nepal Praised; NIC Lacks Officials
New regulations on right to information in Nepal are being welcomed, but vacancies at the National Information Commission are becoming an issue. The revised regulations make 13 positive accomplishments, according to the advocacy group Freedom Forum, which was part of a task force that recommended the changes. Many of the improvements are to the request-handling […]
-
27 August 2013
FOI Notes: Manning, World Bank, UK, US, Open Data, OGP, India, Grants
Whistle-Blowing: A post on the Open Society Foundations website says the 35 year sentence for Bradley Manning is out of step with the punishment he would have received in other democracies, and certainly not in line with international law, including as the Tshwane Principles. IFTI Watch: The World Bank has released a new report — […]