This
site is a one-stop portal that describes best practices, consolidates
lessons learned, explains campaign strategies and tactics, and
links the efforts of freedom of information advocates around the
world. It contains crucial information on freedom of information
laws and how they were drafted and implemented, including how
various provisions have worked in practice.
In
the last decade, dozens of countries have enacted formal statutes
guaranteeing their citizens' right of access to government information.
Elsewhere, even without legal guarantees, citizens are asserting
their right to know. Throughout the world, freedom of information
movements are changing the definition of democratic governance.
freedominfo.org
is a virtual network that links these movements as they struggle
for greater openness. It is the online institutional memory of
freedom of information campaigns throughout the world.
Since
the site was first launched in June 2002, freedominfo.org
has received over 1 million hits from more than 160,000 unique
visitors.
The
National Security Archive atthe
George Washington University serves as the secretariat for
the site, and as its fiscal sponsor through the National Security
Archive Fund Inc., a non-profit Washington D.C.-based corporation
recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a public charity.
The
Ford Foundation has provided grant funding to support
freedominfo.org's monitoring work on openness in the international
financial and trade institutions.
Freedom
of Information Advocates Network
The FOI Advocates network was formed in response to a growing
global movement for access to information, to meet the need for
cooperation among NGOs working actively in the freedom of information
area and to facilitate the development of common projects. The
Network aims to help NGOs with campaigning, advocacy, and fundraising,
through exchange of information, ideas, strategies and by providing
a forum for collaboration.
Global
Transparency Initiative The Global Transparency Initiative (GTI) is a network
of civil society organisations promoting openness in the International
Financial Institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank, the IMF,
the European Investment Bank and Regional Development Banks.
David
Banisar, Visiting Scholar at the University
of Leeds and a fellow of the Open Society Institute.
Maria
Baron, Fulbright-APSA Senior Congressional
Fellow (2003-2004), advocate for legislative transparency
in Argentina and author of three editions of Directorio
Legislativo.
Thomas
S. Blanton, director of George Washington
University's National Security Archive, the leading NGO user
of the U.S. freedom of information law.
Richard
Calland, executive
chair of the Open Democracy Advice Centre (Capetown, South
Africa) and a drafter of South Africa's strong access law
and constitutional guarantees of openness.
Sheila
S. Coronel, executive director of the Philippine
Center for Investigative Journalism, editor of The Right
to Know: Access to Information in Southeast Asia (2001).
Deirdre
M. Curtin, professor of the law of international
organizations at the University of Utrecht and expert on European
Union openness initiatives.
Ann
M. Florini, Senior Fellow in the Governance
Studies Program of The Brookings Institution, editor of The
Third Force: The Rise of Transnational Civil Society (2000),
and a partner (with Joseph Stiglitz) in the Initiative for
Policy Dialogue.
Maurice
Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom
of Information in Great Britain, which won a 20-year struggle
for an access law in 2000.
Gergana
Jouleva, founder and director of Bulgaria's
Access to Information Programme, the NGO that led the successful
campaign for the access law passed in 2000.
Toby
Mendel, director of Article 19's law programme
and author of the Article 19 "Principles of freedom of
information legislation."
Lawrence
Repeta, member, board of directors of Information
Clearinghouse Japan (the leading Japanese NGO advocating and
monitoring the new access law), and Director, Temple University
Law School Program in Japan.
Alasdair
Roberts, director of the Campbell Public
Affairs Institute at Syracuse University's Maxwell School,
and expert on Canadian and international access laws.
Shekhar
Singh, professor at the Indian Institute
of Public Administration and co-founder of India's National
Campaign for People's Right to Information.
Ernesto
Villanueva, professor at Ibero-American
University in Mexico City, founder of the Center for the Right
to Information, and co-leader of the Grupo Oaxaca coalition
of openness advocates in Mexico.
Editors:
Sheila
Coronel served as executive editor for
the site launch.
Thomas
Blanton of the National Security Archive
serves as executive editor.
Kristin
Adair of the National Security Archive
is the managing editor of the site.
Michael
Evans of the National Security Archive
is the Web director for the site.
