Posts Tagged ‘rti litigation’
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10 August 2011
Indian Supreme Court Orders Disclosure of Reviewed Tests
The Indian Supreme Court Aug. 8 said students had the right to access their evaluated answer sheets under the Right to Information Act. In its decision, the court upheld a 2009 Calcutta high court that the materials are not exempt from the transaprency law and must disclose the reviewed tests. The case developed after a […]
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22 July 2011
Alliance Backs Case on Transparency in Ecuador
The Regional Alliance for Freedom of Expression and Information (Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información) has submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica that seeks to establish standards for dissemination of information. The case, “Pueblo Indígena Kichwa de Sarayaku vs. Ecuador,” is being conducted by […]
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8 July 2011
Indian CIC Criticizes Exemption for CBI
The Indian Central Information Commission has crossed swords with the government over its exemption of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the Right to Information Act as the matter heads toward a likely conclusion in the courts. The Cabinet action is “without sanction of the law” and “not in consonance with the letter or […]
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27 June 2011
EU Parliament Bows to Court Ruling on Access to Report
The European Parliament June 22 decided to surrender a report on the abuse of payments made to members of parliament. The so-called Galvin report was the subject of a court case recently decided in favor of the Irish lawyer who requested the document. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) At the time of the ruling it was not […]
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23 March 2011
Court Clears Way for Disclosures About U.S. Bailout
The U.S. Supreme Court March 21 decided not to overturn two related federal appeals court rulings requiring the Federal Reserve to disclose details about financial aid to banks and other institutions during the 2008 financial crisis. Bloomberg and Fox News Network sought information under the Freedom of Information Act about which institutions sought and received […]
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23 March 2011
EU Court Supports Disclosing Names of Countries
The Council of the European Union was not justified in refusing to disclose the identities of countries taking positions on reform of the European Union’s access to information rules, the General Court of the EU has decided. The Court found that the Council had “in no way demonstrated” how publication of the country names would “seriously […]
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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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12 July 2010
Nigerian Legislator Discounts FOI Bill’s Chances
The long-running effort to pass a Freedom of Information law in Nigeria continues to face serious challenges, according to recent media reports. Ahmed Aliyu Wadada, the new chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Information and National Orientation, told reporters July 6 that passage this year was not guaranteed but that lawmakers were working […]
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25 August 2009
US Torture Files and Access to Human Rights Information
By Jesse Franzblau and Emilene Martinez-Morales Washington, DC — The US government’s August 24, 2009, release of a controversial CIA 2004 Inspector General report on torture brings new attention to the issue of how information on human rights abuses is treated and should be treated under freedom of information laws. Deadlines set by a federal […]
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14 April 2009
European Court of Human Rights: Right to Information Essential to Free Expression
Társaság a Szabadságjogokért v. Hungary a Landmark Decision in the Right to Know Strasbourg, France — In a landmark decision today, the European Court of Human Rights of the Council of Europe found in favor of Társaság a Szabadságjogokért, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, in its complaint against the Hungarian government over a submission to the Hungarian […]
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24 February 2009
UK Justice Minister Jack Straw Vetoes the Release of Pre-Iraq Cabinet Minutes
First Use of Veto Provision in UK’s 2000 FOI Law Sets Dangerous Precedent London, United Kingdom – Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw today used his veto power to block the release of minutes from two controversial cabinet meetings in March 2003, when the British government signed off on joining the Bush administration’s invasion […]
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30 January 2008
Foreign Ministry’s Failure to Provide Documents on 1965 Japan-Korea Normalization Pact Illegal
By Lawrence Repeta, Omiya Law School Tokyo, Japan — More than six decades after the end of World War II, responsibility for wartime suffering remains a highly sensitive political issue in Asia, nowhere more so than in the Japan-Korea relationship. When the two countries normalized relations in 1965, one treaty provision was intended to settle […]
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7 September 2006
Australia: High Court Sides with Bureaucrats, Rolling Back Right to Information
The Australian High Court yesterday in a decision in McKinnon v. Secretary, Department of Treasury dealt a crushing blow to the country’s 24-year-old Freedom of Information Law, setting a precedent that permits government bureaucrats to deny public requests for information on the basis of broad claims of potential harm. The High Court found that Treasurer […]
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22 November 2003
THAILAND: Anti-graft Agency Exempt from Official Information Act?
The Bangkok Post reports that the Official Information Commission will seek a Constitution Court ruling on whether the anti-graft agency was exempt from article 40 of the Official Information Act making it disclose state information. Rongpol Charoenphan, Prime Minister’s Office’s deputy permanent secretary, said the meeting, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Visanu Krue-ngam, discussed the […]
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12 November 2003
JAPAN: Supreme Court Overturns Disclosure Ruling
The Asahi Shimbun (Japan) reports that the Supreme Court has overturned a high court decision ordering the disclosure of the names and titles of private citizens wined and dined by the Osaka municipal government in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The case involves a June 1992 request by the citizens group Mihariban for records […]
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26 July 2002
Ugandan High Court to Consider Releasing Key Document on Dam Project
The Ugandan High Court will listen to arguments Aug. 22 to decide whether a contract document for the proposed Bujagali Dam should be released to the public. Neither the Ugandan government, nor the dam project’s sponsor, AES Nile Power, a subsidiary of AES Corp. of Arlington, Va., have previously refused to release the Power Purchase […]