Latest Features
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14 May 2012
Access to Public Information in Brazil: What Will Change With Law No. 12.527/2011?
By Marcelo Sarkis
Sarkis is a lawyer, Institutional and Governmental Affairs at ALCÂNTARA&HOLSTAD International Consultancy, Brasília – Brazil. www.alcantaraholstad.com
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to… -
11 May 2012
Taking Stock of OGP
By Abhinav Bahl
Bahl works for Global Integrity, which published this article May 9.
The Open Government Partnership is officially afoot with the Articles of Governance formally approved and adopted at the first annual meeting in Brasilia last month. With… -
7 May 2012
More Fees, Discretion to Refuse FOI Requests Recommended In Australia
By Avinesh Chand and Barry Dunphy
This article appeared April 26 on the blog of the Australian Clayton Utz law firm and is reprinted with permission.
Key Points: Agencies could have greater discretion to refuse freedom of information requests, and… -
25 April 2012
Effective RTI Law Needed in Pakistan; Model Law Drafted
By Muhammad Aftab Alam
Alam is the executive director of the newly established Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development (IRADA), a new not-for-profit Pakistani independent policy, advocacy, research and training organization. This article first appeared in The News and is… -
8 March 2012
Forcing Open the Government in Australia
By David Jean
This article first appeared in The Advertiser, Adelaide, Australia, on March 6, by staff writer David Jean, and is reprinted with permission.
For Mark Parnell, it was a bittersweet victory.
After a 20-month Freedom of Information battle that included… -
2 March 2012
RIght2Know Campaign in South Africa Issues Report
This report was prepared by the National Working Group for presentation at the 2012 Right2Know National Summit March 3-4, 2012 in Johannesburg.
1. INTRODUCTION
It is a mere 18 months since the launch of the Right2Know Campaign at the end of… -
17 February 2012
OGP and Brazil: Question About Consultation and Participation
By Greg Michener
This article first appeared in Michener’s blog: http://observingbrazil.com/
As co-chair of the Open Government Partnership, in a very few months Brazil will play host to a meeting among more than 50 countries participating in an unprecedented global initiative: a… -
16 February 2012
RTI Implementation: Comparing Experiences in Southeast Asia
By Chiranjibi Kafle
The writer is Head, Department of English, RR Campus, Kathmandu. This article was originally published in Republica and is reprinted with permission.
More than 90 countries in the world today have introduced Right to Information (RTI) legislations… -
3 February 2012
Bahamas Set to Debate Freedom of Information Bill
By Larry Smith
Smith is an independent columnist whose work appears in The Tribune. Reprinted by permission.
Last October the government tabled an historic Freedom of Information Bill in Parliament - fulfilling a key election pledge. This law is expected to be… -
3 February 2012
FOI Training for Government Officials: Main Trends
By Natalia Torres
Torres is Senior Researcher for the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE) in Argentina. See this article in Spanish.
CELE has just released a brief note on access to information training… -
3 February 2012
Acceso a la información: principales tendencias en la capacitación de funcionarios
Por Natalia Torres
Investigadora Principal del CELE
El CELE acaba de publicar una breve documento sobre capacitación de funcionarios en acceso a la información pública. El documento, elaborado por Natalia Torres y Luis Esquivel, describe las diferentes estrategias utilizadas por… -
30 January 2012
Campaign Under Way for Germany to Join Open Government Partnership
By Sebastian Haselbeck
Haselbeck is community manager of the Internet & Society Co:llaboratory.
When eight countries committed to launching the Open Government Partnership in the fall of 2011, chaired by the governments of the United States and Brazil, hopes were… -
30 January 2012
Under Obama, FOIA Is Still in Shackles
By Trevor Timm
Timm is an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who specializes in free speech issues and government transparency. He also curates the Twitter account @WLLegal that reports on legal news surrounding WikiLeaks, the right to publish classified… -
27 January 2012
Ruling Underscores Need for RTI Bill in Pakistan
By Ikramul Hag and Huzaima Bukhari
The writers are lawyers and visiting professors at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. This article first appeared Jan 17 in The News, and is reprinted by permission of the authors.
“Every citizen shall… -
13 January 2012
Argentina: Opening Up the Governance of the Judiciary
By Natalia Torres
Torres is Senior Researcher at the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE) in Argentina. See this article Spanish.
At the end of December 1999 the National Congress approved the National Law… -
13 January 2012
Argentina: abriendo el gobierno de la justicia
Por Natalia Torres
Investigadora Principal del CELE, Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión y Acceso a la Información (See this article in English.)
A fines de diciembre de 1999 el Congreso de la Nación aprobó la Ley Nacional de Ética… -
20 December 2011
What’s Ailing RTI? Resource Issues Plague Indian Law
By Shonali Ghosal
Ghosal is a correspondent with Tehelka magazine, based in New Delhi, which published this article in its Dec. 24 edition. Following is an interview with Shailesh Gandhi, a Central Information Commissioner. (Reprinted with permission.)
The mere suggestion… -
16 November 2011
Japan: Greater Openness or Greater Secrecy?
By Lawrence Repeta
Repeta is a professor of law, Meiji University, Japan, and a member of the board of directors of Information Clearinghouse Japan (the leading Japanese NGO advocating and monitoring Japan’s information access laws)
The Japan Times recently carried an editorial… -
14 November 2011
Implementation of Bangladesh RTI Law Needs Improvement
By Robaet Ferdous and Jagaran Chakma
Ferdous is an Associate Professor, Dhaka University and Chakma is a Staff Reporter of The Independent where this article first appeared on Oct. 29, 2011. Reprinted with permission.
The Right to Information (RTI) Act,… -
31 October 2011
Designing Exemptions That Balance Both Effective and Accountable Governance
By Muhammad Zamir
Zami is Chief Information Commissioner, Information Commission, Bangladesh. He gave this talk Oct. 4 at the Ottawa, Canada, meeting of the International Conference of Information Commissioners. His original title is: “Limiting the limitations: Designing exemptions that balance…